• Vodafone shells out £4.3bn to fully own VodafoneThree
• Telenor launches sovereign cloud company
• Adtran sees its sales go up but its share price go down

In today’s industry news roundup: Vodafone is buying the 49% of UK operator VodafoneThree it doesn’t currently own for £4.3bn; Telenor is creating a separate but wholly owned company to provide sovereign cloud services initially in Norway and, possibly, across the Nordics in the future; broadband and optical vendor Adtran sees its share price take a dive despite reporting significant Q1 sales growth; and much more!

Vodafone Group is spending £4.3bn to take full control of VodafoneThree, the UK telco in which Vodafone currently holds a 51% stake and CK Hutchison Group Telecom (CKHGT) holds 49%: The ‘transaction’, which is expected to close in the second half of this year, will involve the cancellation of the VodafoneThree shares currently held by CKHGT. After a courtship that lasted years, VodafoneThree was finally formed in late May 2025 through the merger of Vodafone UK and Three UK. Vodafone Group CEO Margherita Della Valle stated: “A year on from the merger, the team has made remarkable progress, as we maximise the full potential of VodafoneThree and capture the significant synergies. I’m delighted that we will now have full ownership of VodafoneThree as we roll out one of Europe’s most advanced 5G networks, provide the UK’s best customer experience and drive long-term value for our shareholders.” Kester Mann, director of consumer and connectivity at CCS Insight, noted that the buyout had always been on the cards “but the agreement has come sooner than expected… the deal is an endorsement of the strong start made by the merged company, notably in bringing the Vodafone and Three networks together. It also reinforces a wide-held industry view that the Vodafone brands will eventually prevail over the Three brands.” Mann added: “For Vodafone Group, the deal forms the latest part of a broad strategy to fix the company’s foundations by creating operations with a sustainable structure and strong brands. After years on the back foot, CEO Margherita Della Valle is finally turning its fortunes around.”

In an effort to capitalise on the growing demand for sovereign services, Telenor is forming a new company called Telenor Sovereign Cloud that will offer services “designed for organisations with the most stringent requirements for security, resilience and regulatory compliance”. The new company will operate “from nationally controlled datacentres in Norway” that will be “isolated from commercial, global cloud solutions”, while “all data will be stored, processed and managed under Norwegian jurisdiction… The solution will be built in collaboration with selected technology partners, while Telenor will retain control over architecture, operations and security,” noted the operator. In the initial phase, the new unit, which will be a standalone company under the Telenor Infrastructure business area, will “target public sector actors and larger enterprises with critical societal functions, with particular focus on the energy and healthcare sectors,” and is expected to launch commercial services in the first half of 2027 following a pilot period with select customers. “Norwegian organisations need modern, scalable cloud services that at the same time provide full national control,” stated Jannicke Hilland, the head of Telenor Infrastructure who recently talked to TelecomTV about the development of sovereign and AI infrastructure-enabled services. “We see a clear and growing need in both the private and public sectors. With Telenor Sovereign Cloud, we aim to deliver a solution that combines scalable cloud technology with Norwegian governance, operations and security,” she added. The new company will be established initially in Norway “partly due to national regulatory requirements and the need for local control,” but could later expand its operations across the Nordics. 

Broadband access and optical network infrastructure vendor Adtran will have started Tuesday with a spring in its step following the publication of its first quarter results today, as the company reported a 15.1% year-on-year increase in revenues to $286.1m and an improvement in gross and operating income margins. For the second quarter of 2026, Adtran expects revenue to be within a range of $283m to $303m. Chairman and CEO Tom Stanton stated: “We believe that the demand drivers underpinning our business continue to build. In the US, broadband momentum continues with BEAD deployment funds now beginning to reach operators in a growing number of states. In Europe, high-risk vendor displacement continues to progress, reinforced by the European Commission's advancing legislation such as Cybersecurity Act 2.0. Also during the quarter, we introduced LiteWave800, our first product purpose-built for intra-datacentre AI infrastructure, setting a new benchmark for power efficiency at 800G.” But while the numbers went up, Adtran’s share price took a dive, dropping by 18% to $15.02 in early trading on the Nasdaq exchange. 

UK data network services specialist Neos Networks is getting in on the sovereign act by working with towers firm Cornerstone to provide connectivity services and sites to StonesThro, which is building a network of distributed cloud and AI compute nodes across the UK. “This distributed model is already unlocking new capabilities for sectors where proximity is important for functionality, ranging from autonomous vehicles and large enterprises to local authorities and high-security sovereign software providers,” noted Neos in this announcement. Lee Myall, CEO at Neos Networks, stated: “Our national footprint is the ideal backbone for Cornerstone and StonesThro’s edge AI cloud. Through our high-capacity connectivity, we are providing the UK-wide sovereign coverage, optionality and technical resilience required for high-security projects. We are proud to power the infrastructure that will enable the next generation of real-time applications and critical national services.”

Telecom Italia (TIM) has been awarded the highest Corporate Sustainability Assessment score – 88 out of 100 – among telecom companies in Europe in S&P Global’s Dow Jones Best in Class Europe (DJ BIC Europe) index, according to the Italian operator. CEO Pietro Labriola stated: “TIM’s inclusion among the leading companies in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index is a significant milestone, as it highlights to the market the work we are pursuing with determination. Sustainability indicators are providing practical guidance for our strategic and operational decisions: from reducing CO₂ emissions through efficiency improvements, new technologies and AI applications, to the certifications we have obtained; from our reorganisation aimed at achieving gender balance to the reduction of penalties; and right through to risk management. These are all key elements we consider essential to strengthening our position as a group in the medium and long term. In recent years, we have simplified our operating model, reduced our environmental impact and aligned our infrastructure and services with growth objectives that are sustainable from an economic perspective as well.”

– The staff, TelecomTV