What’s up with… Veon/Kyivstar, D2C, PacketFabric

• Veon’s Kyivstar teams with Google on local LLM build
• Satellite operators set for direct-to-cell (D2C) revenues hike
• PacketFabric unveils AI-native NaaS

In today’s industry news roundup: Veon’s operation in Ukraine, Kyivstar, is collaborating with Google on the development of a local language LLM; satellite operators are set for a significant jump in revenues from the provision of direct-to-cell services, according to Juniper Research; PacketFabric has unveiled an AI-native network-as-a-service (NaaS) offering that, it claims, reduces weeks of processes into a single typed request; and much more!

Kyivstar and Ukraine’s digital ministry have opted to build the country’s own national large language model (LLM) on Google Gemma. The Veon-owned operator and the WINWIN AI Centre of Excellence, which is part of Ukraine’s Ministry of Digital Transformation, picked Gemma as the base model for the country’s sovereign AI, which is currently under development. Google’s Vertex AI infrastructure will provide the computing power needed to capture the full breadth of Ukrainian dialects, terminology, history and context, while making sure data is securely processed within the country’s borders. Kyivstar picked Google after what it called an “extensive evaluation”. Once complete, the LLM will serve as the foundation for AI services within both public and private sectors across Ukraine. “We are building the Ukrainian LLM on a ready-made open-source model. The main task in development is to train it on our unique data further. When choosing a model, we focused on how well it already handles Ukrainian-language texts and how controllable it is during additional training. This will help minimise linguistic and ethical risks in our LLM,” said Danylo Tsvok, chief AI officer at the Ministry of Digital Transformation and CEO of the WINWIN AI Centre of Excellence. The move is a continuation of Veon’s effort to play a leading role within the sovereign AI of countries in which it operates, and follows a recent deal signed by its software development unit, QazCode, to work with MeetKai to develop and train LLMs for local-language AI services. Veon has previously said the collaboration will help it to develop “safe, locally relevant AI digital services for over 150 million customers across Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Pakistan and Bangladesh.”

Satellite providers are set to generate direct-to-cell (D2C) service revenues worth $370m in 2026, according to a new study from Juniper Research. That is an increase of more than 260% year on year from the $100m revenues that satellite operators are expected to generate this year, thanks in part to new partnerships with mobile network operators. Growth in the sector has been driven by a number of partnership deals for the likes of SpaceX, through its Starlink low-earth orbit (LEO) constellation, with operators such as Japan’s KDDI and T-Mobile US. But satellite operators will continue to lean on terrestrial networks, rather than compete more directly with them, due to challenges providing indoor connectivity from a satellite. Recent speculation suggested that Starlink, which acquired more than $17bn worth of US and global spectrum, could come after the mobile operators’ lunch and aim to become a global mobile service provider, but that’s unlikely to happen, according to Alex Webb, senior research analyst at Juniper Research. “A satellite-first MNO will struggle to provide connectivity services to consumers that are comparable to terrestrial MNOs. Satellite signals will be obstructed indoors, leaving subscribers with a disjointed connectivity service, reducing a service’s value,” noted Webb. “We do not expect satellite operators to compete with MNOs in the consumer sector. We believe their best path to securing a return on investment in their satellite constellations lies with partnerships with incumbent MNOs.”

Network-as-a-service (NaaS) pioneer PacketFabric has unveiled PacketFabric.ai, which it describes as “the industry’s first fully AI-native network-as-a-service (NaaS) platform, enabling enterprises to design, price and provision network connectivity instantly through natural-language commands.” The launch “represents a major milestone in the company’s strategy to deliver AI-driven infrastructure services at global scale,” noted the company. According to the NaaS specialist, “with PacketFabric.ai, workflows that traditionally required days or weeks of quoting, approvals and manual engineering can now be completed in seconds. Users can simply type: ‘Connect my AWS environment in LAX1 to Azure in NYC2 with 100 Gbit/s and encryption’,” a prompt that generates instant and validated options, pricing and automated provisioning without tickets, delays or human coordination required. “For decades, enterprises have accepted that building and buying network services is slow, complex, and opaque,” stated Chad Milam, CEO of PacketFabric. “PacketFabric.ai eliminates that burden by collapsing multiweek cycles into a single, conversational request. No one else in the market delivers AI-driven pricing and provisioning with this level of precision and automation, leveraging networking partners across the industry.” Read more. 

Apple AI chief John Giannandrea has announced plans to retire from the iPhone-maker in spring 2026 and the iPhone giant has nabbed a big AI name from Microsoft to replace him. Giannandrea, who has been Apple’s SVP for machine learning and AI since 2018, will step back from the company, serving as an adviser until he retires next year. He will be replaced by renowned AI researcher Amar Subramanya, who will join Apple as vice president of AI, reporting into SVP of software Craig Federighi. Subramanya most recently served as corporate VP of AI at Microsoft, and previously spent 16 years at Google, where he was head of engineering for Google’s Gemini Assistant prior to his departure. “We are thankful for the role John played in building and advancing our AI work, helping Apple continue to innovate and enrich the lives of our users,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, in a statement. “AI has long been central to Apple’s strategy, and we are pleased to welcome Amar to Craig’s leadership team and to bring his extraordinary AI expertise to Apple.” The senior change comes as Apple lags behind some of its biggest rivals in the AI race, particularly when it comes to voice assistant Siri, which is due to form a key part of Apple Intelligence – the AI product suite it launched last year – but has yet to see major upgrades. “This work [on Siri] needed more time to reach our high-quality bar,” Federighi said during Apple’s developer conference in June.

Telia and Siemens Mobility have played a key role in supporting the deployment of public transport operator Sporveien’s new digital signalling system for the Oslo Metro. The system is the first in Europe to run on a commercial mobile network, instead of relying on Wi-Fi, which will deliver “significant cost benefits for Sporveien”, claims Telia. Siemens Mobility is supplying the new system, which is based on communications-based train control (CBTC) technology that connects trains, track equipment and control centres. Telia will deliver a managed service that meets the customer’s specific needs for safety, reliability and performance, including 24/7 monitoring. Morten Karlsen Sørby, acting head of Telia Norway, stated: “As far as we know, only the New York City Subway uses a mobile network as part of a signalling system. It places high demands on availability and service quality, and Telia is ready to deliver. We congratulate Sporveien on this new system, and we’re very proud of our innovative collaboration with both Sporveien and Siemens Mobility.”

Following its acquisition of Munich-based Smart Mobile Labs (SML), shared network infrastructure and private networks specialist Boldyn Networks is expanding its presence in Germany in an effort to capitalise on the expected growth in the private networks sector in the country. “Germany is expected to become one of the largest private networks markets in Europe over the next decade,” noted the company in this announcement. “Boldyn currently operates more than 60 private 5G network sites in Germany and employs a team of [more than] 20 experts dedicated to designing and deploying bespoke connectivity solutions for this growing demand,” it added. Now, to address the “growing need for reliable communications in mission-critical environments,” Boldyn’s team in Germany has “developed a proprietary solution” suited to industry sectors, such as mines, automotive, ports and airports. Read more. 

– The staff, TelecomTV