• EXA unveils new transatlantic network
• European nations rally around sovereign AI
• Telcos put more pressure on the European Commission

In today’s industry news roundup: Long-distance network operator EXA Infrastructure has announced what it says is the first transatlantic cable built by a single operator in a decade; 19 European countries are seeking to jointly develop a federated, sovereign AI sector; Europe’s major telcos put pressure on the European Commission over risky rules; and much more!

Alternative pan-European long-distance network operator EXA Infrastructure has announced the launch of EXA Meridian, a new 6,552km transatlantic subsea cable that links New Jersey, US, and Brean in the English county of Somerset. “Scheduled to be ready for service in 2029, EXA Meridian will become the ninth transatlantic cable in EXA Infrastructure’s portfolio, adding significant new capacity and route diversity between North America and Europe, two of the world’s largest digital markets,” noted the operator in this announcement. “It will also be the first transatlantic cable built by a single operator in a decade,” it added. According to EXA, demand for transatlantic infrastructure is growing “as AI, cloud and distributed datacentre architectures generate more traffic between North America and Europe. At the same time, the largest capacity buyers are increasingly procuring spectrum and complete fibre pairs rather than individual wavelengths. EXA Meridian is purpose-built for this market shift. Designed with 24 fibre pairs, EXA Meridian delivers over 500 Tbit/s of scalable, long-term capacity for hyperscalers, neoclouds, financial institutions, government and research organisations.”

Another day another sovereign tech initiative in Europe… 19 European countries have published a joint manifesto setting out their ambition for a new Important Project of Common European Interest, known as the IPCEI-AI, on a “continuum of federated and distributed artificial intelligence services”. The signatories note in this announcement published by the 8ra Initiative – a European sovereign tech programme closely aligned with the IPCEI-AI – that “the initiative is intended to support research, development and first industrial deployment of a new generation of AI technologies and services in Europe. Its goal is to create an open, distributed, sustainable and highly interoperable AI continuum, bringing together companies and technologies across borders and enabling industry- and sector-specific AI models, systems and services.” The manifesto “places IPCEI-AI within Europe’s broader efforts to strengthen its technological resilience and digital sovereignty. European industry needs access not only to advanced AI models and software but also to computing resources, cloud services and trusted industrial data, while reducing dependencies on third-party technologies and providers.” This echoes many of the sentiments of major European tech and telecom companies, of course. The manifesto itself notes: “The key of the IPCEI-AI will be to bring technological innovation beyond the global state of the art with industry grade AI-foundation models in key products, tools [and] services. It will benefit many sectors of the European economy and society, such as manufacturing, robotics, mobility, energy, semiconductor, agriculture, healthcare, defence, telecommunications or public administration. The project will equip the EU with next-generation AI capabilities, such as agentic AI frameworks, based on advanced services and interoperable solutions. As a result, the project will position Europe as a global leader in applied AI innovation while retaining critical technological expertise.” Good luck with that!

Still in Europe and a familiar refrain…. The heads of 17 telcos, including Deutsche Telekom, KPN, Orange, Swisscom, Telenor and Telefónica, have signed a joint letter slamming the European Commission for its “incoherent policy reforms” that are putting the role of network operators as “the foundation of Europe’s technology stack… at risk”. They noted: “European tech leadership requires Europe to translate its competitiveness agenda into concrete policy reforms. A shift in policy direction is starting to take shape in key areas. On tech sovereignty, the European Commission has taken positive steps with the Cloud and AI Development Act as well as with its recent mobile satellite spectrum regulation, by making room for European alternatives in both cloud and satellite connectivity as tools to boost competitiveness. We believe the same spirit should be reflected in modernised merger enforcement, allowing both in-market and cross-border consolidation to help us invest and innovate at scale. By contrast, the current proposal for a Digital Networks Act (DNA) fails to address Europe’s need to materially improve investment and innovation conditions for connectivity.” For more, see the letter in full. 

Vodafone Spain, the Spanish telco owned by Zegona Communications, says it reduced its data traffic-related energy consumption by 7.7% during the 2025-26 period, reaching 34.9 kWh per terabyte of data, according to its Sustainability Report. “This efficiency improvement is linked to the modernisation of infrastructure and the implementation of energy-saving features, and occurred within a context of 14.6% year-over-year growth in data traffic on its mobile and fixed networks,” noted the operator in this announcement (in Spanish). “Key initiatives include the progressive shutdown of the copper network, which has reduced energy demand by 21.6 GWh annually since the project’s inception,” as well as the supply of 100% renewable electricity, the operator added. 

XLSmart, the giant Indonesian telco formed by the $6.5bn merger in late 2024 of XL Axiata and Smartfren, is making progress towards its autonomous networks goals by partnering with ZTE. The Chinese vendor noted in this announcement that it has been “collaborating with XLSmart to validate Network Optimization Agent capabilities in selected live-network scenarios. Through these validations, the two parties are demonstrating how AI agent capabilities can support the operational loop from perception and analysis to decision-making and execution, while generating practical insights and measurable results to guide the further development of autonomous network capabilities.”

Poor indoor mobile connectivity could be costing the UK economy £103bn a year, according to 900 C-suite and IT decision-makers surveyed by Freshwave for the neutral host infrastructure specialist’s 2026 Mobile Connectivity ROI Index, with £63bn of the estimated productivity shortfall impacting the public sector. Leaders in 89% of the organisations surveyed cited daily indoor connectivity problems, with more than 40% of them believing a one-hour outage “would cause major disruption or stop operations altogether”. According to Freshwave, “the 2026 survey shows that senior leaders believe that improved indoor connectivity can immediately recover more than £60bn of the UK-wide losses each year, including £39bn across the public sector. Across most industries, respondents pointed to real-time, continuous data as the biggest opportunity to drive efficiency gains and accelerate digital transformation.” Examples of such real-time capabilities highlighted by respondents include: Enhanced passenger flow monitoring at rail stations; connected devices in community care; intelligent surveillance in commercial real estate; and tracking of progress on construction sites. Freshwave noted that “AI is becoming increasingly pivotal to these applications, which all depend upon continuous, uninterrupted signal to work effectively.”

Near-term prospects are bleak for Illinois, US-based wireless networking infrastructure vendor Cambium Networks, which has cut 260 jobs, almost 54% of its global workforce, and placed its UK operation, Cambium Networks Ltd, into administration (meaning it is bankrupt). Cambium notes that while the administrators will attempt to sell the UK unit’s assets, it expects the business to be shut down. Earlier this year, Cambium Networks was delisted from the Nasdaq stock exchange after it continued to delay publication of its financial reports: In May, it provided an unaudited trading update for the first quarter of this year, with revenues of $44.6m and an operating loss of $1.2m, while its balance sheet showed it had almost run out of cash.  

– The staff, TelecomTV