• BT turns to Accenture for AI smarts
• Verizon joins Anthropic’s Project Glasswing
• AST SpaceMobile cleared for service in Brazil

In today’s industry news roundup: BT adopts AIOps with help from Accenture; Verizon has been granted access to Anthropic’s powerful Claude Mythos AI model; D2D satellite operator AST SpaceMobile has been given the all-clear to provide its services in Brazil; and much more!

BT Business, the enterprise services arm of UK national telco BT Group, has partnered with Accenture to introduce AIOps capabilities to its day-to-day operations, a move the telco says will strengthen its ability to support UK businesses and the public sector. According to BT, the multi-year partnership will strengthen its existing AI capabilities within its network intelligence, customer data and insight platforms, adding that it will dovetail with its existing partnership with US cloud-based automated workflow specialist ServiceNow. The deal with Accenture will enable BT Business to deploy AI agents to autonomously analyse and self-heal network issues; use AI to identify and resolve merging cyber threats faster; and drive efficiency across customer networks. BT also said it will leverage “AI-powered journey mapping” to redesign its end-to-end customer processes.

Still with BT… The UK operator has reignited efforts to find a partner or buyer for its international operation, according to Sky News. Under CEO Allison Kirkby, the telco’s focus is very firmly on the UK market and cost control, a strategy that has helped BT’s share price to more than double since she took over in early 2024 (it currently trades at 233 pence on the London Stock Exchange). As part of that strategy, Kirkby is seeking to offload all or part of BT International, which was set up as a standalone unit last year and is now run by Clive Selley: Reports of initial conversations with the likes of AT&T and Orange were circulating last year but didn’t come to anything. However, now, in the wake of a number of positive announcements about the telco’s global unit, Kirkby and her team are set to try again with the help of institutional M&A experts. 

US operator Verizon has become the first telco to join Project Glasswing, the initiative set up in April to put Claude Mythos, the new frontier large language model (LLM) developed by AI giant Anthropic, through its paces. Anthropic set up the initiative for a limited number of partners because it believes Mythos could be a cybersecurity risk to the wider world if it is made generally available: According to Verizon, the system is “capable of identifying complex vulnerabilities in critical software and operating systems at unprecedented speed”. Verizon CEO Dan Schulman stated: “Our customers rely on the security of our network every day. As part of Project Glasswing, we are able to test and improve our cybersecurity efforts with new insights to maintain our network’s security. Over the past several months, our information security team has been rigorously testing this critical new technology to determine its benefits to our network. As the only telecommunications company utilising Mythos Preview, we are uniquely positioned to share cross-industry insights that will help secure the global internet fabric and support our mission to deliver a safe and reliable experience for every customer.”

Brazilian telecom regulator Anatel has given the thumbs up to satellite firm AST SpaceMobile to operate 248 orbital satellites in the country. Through its subsidiary AST & Science Do Brazil Ltda, AST SpaceMobile has been given permission to access 10x10 MHz of S-Band spectrum in the 1980-2010 and 2170-2200 range until September 2039. The details of Anatel’s decision were shared on LinkedIn by AST SpaceMobile promoter Peter Lindmark and follows a similar approval from US regulator the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) granted in April, though the direct-to-device (D2D) service provider is still awaiting approval from other important regulators, including Germany’s BNetzA.

Australian datacentre company NextDC has started operations at its KL1 facility in Kuala Lumpur, the company’s first international datacentre. The AUS$1bn facility, located in Malaysia’s Klang Valley, has been designed to deliver 65MW of IT capacity and will be the first in peninsular Malaysia to be Uptime Institute Tier IV-certified, according to NextDC. KL1 extends NextDC’s reach into South-east Asia, and the company said it is evaluating future sites in Japan, Thailand and Singapore. But while the facility is online now, a promotional video on the company’s website said it will be expanded out in five phases, with the first phase offering 15MW of capacity. It will eventually offer 18,250sqm of technical space.

Having confirmed last month that it is engaged in M&A discussions, UK-based Gamma Communications has now notified investors that UK-based private equity firm Epiris and a consortium comprising Oakley Capital and Giacom, a UK-based provider of communications, cloud and IT services and technology, are “amongst the parties” in talks to acquire Gamma. As a result of the prospect of a sale, Gamma’s shares are currently trading at 998.5 pence on the London Stock Exchange, up by more than 40% since late March, just before the service provider made its initial M&A-related announcement. The company’s current market valuation stands at £913m.   

– The staff, TelecomTV