• Vodafone completes full takeover of UK JV
• KT Corp. fined over data breaches
• French government eyes sale of Orange shares

In today’s industry news roundup: Vodafone completes a £4.3bn deal to buyout JV partner CK Hutchison from its UK operation VodafoneThree; Korea’s regulator slaps KT Corp. with a $37m fine over data breaches; France is reportedly set to reduce its stake in national operator Orange in a €1bn share sale; and much more!

Vodafone Group has taken full control of UK arm VodafoneThree after acquiring CK Hutchison’s 49% stake in the year-old joint venture. Earlier this year, Vodafone announced its plans to become the outright owner of VodafoneThree after striking a £4.3bn agreement with former Three owner CK Hutchison, noting it would fund the deal through existing cash resources. Margherita Della Valle, chief executive of Vodafone Group, said: “With full ownership and control, we’ll have the ability to move faster in the next phase of building one of Europe’s leading networks. This best-in-class infrastructure will deliver better connectivity for our customers up and down the country, help drive the UK’s digital economy and deliver long-term value for our shareholders.” The merger between Vodafone’s UK assets and Three UK was first announced in 2023 but did not complete until June 2025, following a drawn-out competition investigation. Since merging, VodafoneThree has pledged to invest £11bn in the UK over the next decade. Vodafone said taking full control of the UK mobile operator will allow it to “move at an even faster pace” with its plans. Separately, VodafoneThree’s head of network monetisation, Francesca Serravalle, and Vodafone Group have also provided in-depth insights into their automated network plans and AI-related deployments and much more, which you can read in TelecomTV’s latest free-to-download editorial report, Network Automation for the AI-Native Telco.

The completion of the deal comes just days after Vodafone revealed it had to cull up to 1,200 jobs across Europe as part of its plans to save up to £700m annually by 2030. The cuts have taken place across Vodafone’s European footprint and were announced as part of the operator’s financial results. Some are understood to have been a result of natural attrition, with jobs left vacant when employees moved on and were not replaced. 

South Korea’s data regulator has slapped KT Corp. with a 54bn won ($37.43m) fine over a data breach in which hackers stole more than 16,000 customer data items. Multiple breaches occurred in August 2025, with the hackers using the stolen customer data and payment information to make 240m won worth of illegal payments, according to a report by South Korea’s Personal Information Protection Commission. It said KT had been breached due to inadequate management of its small-cell base station network, allowing hackers to illegally use femtocells to gain access to its network. During its investigation, the panel also found multiple types of malware in KT’s servers, and accused the telco of trying to cover up the infiltration and failing to notify authorities as required by law, according to a Reuters report. KT told the Korea Herald it has accepted the regulator’s decision and apologised again for causing concern among customers and the public. “We are rebuilding our personal information protection system from the ground up and expanding security investment to prevent similar incidents and restore customer trust,” a KT official said.

The French government is set to sell shares worth up to €1bn in its stake in incumbent operator Orange through a secondary share offering, according to reports. Reuters, citing people familiar with the matter, claims France’s state shareholding vehicle APE and state investment bank Bpifrance are set to offload up to 66.5 million shares in Orange. Through these two companies, France is Orange’s largest shareholder, owning around 23% of the telco, but this stake will be reduced down to just over 20% if the transaction goes through. Paris will retain significant voting power, however, despite reducing its financial stake. According to the reports, talks between the telco and government officials have been underway for around two years, with any transaction expected to be completed quickly.

BT’s broadband wholesale division, Openreach, has issued a reminder to UK businesses and communications providers that there are just six months left until it switches off the UK’s old copper phone network. According to Openreach, around 1.5 million lines, including some 350,000 business premises, still operate on its Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), which will be retired on 31 January 2027. The PSTN is used to provide services including payment terminals, security alarms and other critical operational technologies, which could stop working if not switched to a digital alternative before the service is retired, Openreach has warned. The wholesale provider is entering the final stages of its ‘Big Switch Off’ campaign, which aims to inform businesses of the network closure and includes pricing changes to encourage migration away from legacy services. Openreach will also issue formal notification to communications providers who still haven’t migrated lines over to fibre or other alternative networks. James Lilley, director of All-IP at Openreach, said: “The PSTN switch-off is now just six months away and there is no extension to the deadline. While millions of customers and many providers and businesses have already made great progress, too many organisations remain exposed to unnecessary risk by delaying their migration plans.

AT&T has launched a dedicated 5G standalone (5G SA) core for US public safety network FirstNet, providing first responders with access to faster upload speeds on network capacity that is separate from commercial traffic. Designed based on direct feedback from US first responders about their operation and technological needs, the 5G SA core uses geographically distributed core sites to provide additional redundancy and resilience. According to AT&T, it also provides “enhanced, public safety-grade security measures”, which will provide protection without sacrificing usability. This includes limiting access to FirstNet SIMs and a dedicated security operations centre that helps identify and mitigate threats. The US government granted AT&T the licence to build a dedicated responders network, which became FirstNet, in 2017 with the initial five-year build-out completed by the March 2023 target. FirstNet subscribers are being transitioned onto the core network, with no additional cost, and AT&T said it has future plans to roll out new functions, including Adaptive Mission Performance, which will use SA technologies, such as network slicing to optimise network performance for different applications and use cases. “When first responders answer the call, they need a network built around their mission – not one designed for everyday consumer use,” said Scott Agnew, president of FirstNet at AT&T. “That’s exactly why we launched the FirstNet 5G standalone core,” he added. 

Belgium’s Proximus has seen its earnings and profits fall year on year thanks, in part, to significant headwinds faced by its international arm. In its second-quarter results, group earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell by 4.2% year on year to €470m ($540.5m), on revenue that was down 0.9% to €1.53bn ($1.75bn). But it was the operator’s international arm, Proximus Global, that had a particularly tough time, with global EBITDA down 34.9% to €29m ($33.3m). CEO Stijn Bijnens said that this was broadly in line with the company’s expectations. Domestically it performed better, as underlying revenue rose 1.1% to €1.19bn ($1.36bn), which the telco credited to strong growth in mobile (with 25,000 postpaid additions) and expansion of its fibre footprint to reach 2,753,000 homes and businesses passed by the end of June 2026. Domestic EBITDA was flat at €441m (+0.3% pro forma).

– The staff, TelecomTV