What’s up with… Vodafone, Telstra, Apple

• Vodafone unleashes Network Verify 2.0 in three markets
• Telstra is under pressure following outage
• Apple is suing OpenAI

In today’s industry news roundup: Vodafone is launching its number authentication API in Germany, the Netherlands and the UK; Telstra outage highlights emergency services woes in Australia; Apple accuses ChatGPT giant of trying to steal valuable inside information; and much more!

Vodafone Group is launching Number Verify 2.0 in Germany, the Netherlands and the UK, signalling the start of a “planned global rollout of the company’s next-generation phone number authentication API” and marking a “major step towards more seamless and secure SIM-based authentication”, the operator announced. The new authentication API, developed to the Camara standard and available now (though only initially on Android devices), “gives businesses a simpler, more secure and seamless way to verify a user’s mobile phone number without SMS one-time passcodes (OTP)” as it “uses the mobile network to verify that a user’s phone number is associated with their SIM and device across both app and web journeys, whether the user is on mobile data or Wi-Fi.” Johanna Wood, director of Network APIs at Vodafone, stated: “SMS OTP has been the default for over a decade, but it was never built for the threat environment we operate in today. Number Verify 2.0 changes that by giving developers a way to verify phone numbers that is faster, safer and seamless for the user. Launching Number Verify 2.0 simultaneously in three countries marks the start of our global rollout for enterprise customers.” To get developers really excited, though, Vodafone will need to add Apple iOS support and also hope that the other service providers in its launch markets are able to support the API, as multi-operator, national coverage is what enables such applications to have a meaningful impact. The news comes only days after the three major operators in the US – AT&T, T-Mobile US and Verizon – collaborated with network API specialist Aduna to jointly launch a new Number Verification solution that offers a nationwide, network-based alternative to SMS OTPs. 

Telstra is coming under fire after its latest network outage impacted voice and data services, including Triple Zero emergency services calls. The Australian telco blamed the outage, which was first identified early on 8 July and finally fixed about 32 hours later and which directly impacted hundreds of customers as well as causing nationwide transport and payments services disruption, on a time synchronisation device: Telstra says the software defect that caused the outage has been isolated and confirmed the incident wasn’t the result of a cyber attack. Local reports note that the incident could have been avoided if the telco had spent a few tens of thousands of dollars replacing an obsolete server to fix a known problem, but that Telstra now faces reputational damage, multiple investigations and fines that could amount to tens of millions of dollars as a result of the outages. Emergency services outages are a sensitive topic in Australia, where Telstra rival Optus suffered Triple Zero service disruption last year that was linked to four deaths.  

Apple has initiated legal action against OpenAI, accusing the ChatGPT developer in this US district court filing of gaining access to valuable inside information by hiring its former staff. In a federal lawsuit, the iPhone-maker accused the AI company and two of its employees of engaging in a “pattern of theft” of Apple’s confidential product development. Apple claims the two employees, who left the company to join OpenAI, had emailed themselves internal documents. OpenAI, through a spokesperson on X, has denied the claims. The filing contains significant details as to how the two ex-Apple employees accessed information on its internal projects, including use of an authentication bug on a company laptop one of the departing staffers allegedly refused to return, while the other is accused of emailing supply chain information to a personal email account. Apple had previously partnered with OpenAI to integrate ChatGPT into Apple devices, but it has shifted some of its features to run on Google’s Gemini model instead. Apple also named io Products, the hardware startup founded by Apple’s former design chief Jony Ive, in the suit – io Products was acquired by OpenAI in a $6.4bn deal last year. Apple is seeking damages and a court order that would block OpenAI from possessing or using its trade secrets

Meta is on course to start making its own AI processor, dubbed Iris, starting in September following a very quick testing programme (just six weeks), according to an internal memo seen by Reuters. The move to make its own AI chip, which has been developed in-house by the Meta Training and Inference Accelerators (MTIA) team, is part of a broader plan to expand its datacentre capacity to 14 gigawatts (GW) next year by deploying a custom-built chip that is optimised for its operations, including the Instagram and Facebook social media platforms. The MTIA team is working with Broadcom on the design of the chip and with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) on the manufacturing: Using its own chip should help Meta to reduce its technology and operating costs and also enable the company to reduce its reliance on chip giants such as Nvidia and AMD.   

Digi Spain, part of the Digi Communications group, has been given the green light by the Spanish Securities Market Commission for its IPO on the Spanish XMAD exchanges. The alternative operator is to offer 26.8 million new shares and 24.5 million existing shares to investors at €5.60 each, a price that would raise €287m in total and value Digi Spain at €1.66bn. The shares are set to start trading on 16 July. 

Japan’s NTT Docomo has 5 million users for its direct-to-device (D2D) satellite service, Docomo Starlink Direct, since its launch in late April, the operator noted in this press release (in Japanese). The service is available for free to all Docomo customers signed up to any of the operator’s mobile rate plans.    

Open source company SUSE has published a couple of blogs worthy of mention. The first highlights some of the sticking points regarding digital sovereignty in Europe, with SUSE’s global head of sovereign solutions, Andreas Prins, noting that while a lot of progress is being made in shoring up Europe’s home-grown tech sector, “Every sovereign cloud, every sovereign AI model, every sovereign government system in Europe runs on silicon designed and manufactured outside Europe. That is not sovereignty. That is sovereignty with an asterisk.” For his full take on the situation, read Europe’s Sovereignty Story Had a Missing Chapter, It Was Called Silicon. 

The second SUSE blog of note is one for Open RAN followers, as it details how the open source specialist and Software Radio Systems (SRS), the Irish developer of RAN software that is a technical contributor to the Linux Foundation’s Open Centralized Unit Distributed Unit (OCUDU) Ecosystem Foundation project, have jointly developed a fully disaggregated, carrier-grade Open RAN stack anchored in the Project Sylva reference architecture. SUSE has shared joint reference architecture documents that highlight the technical integration of the OCUDU RAN stack with SUSE Telco Cloud, validated in collaboration with SRS, enabling deployment of RAN with AI-native workloads. 

Keep an eye out for projects or collaborations that reference OCUDU, which looks likely to crop up in an increasing number of developments – it has already featured this month as one of the many moving parts that led to Cohere Technologies being awarded a $28m contract funded by the FutureG Office within the US Department of War (DoW) to “support the development of a multi-waveform radio access network (RAN) prototype for mission-critical integrated sensing and communications (ISAC)”.  

The TRANTOR project (5G+ evoluTion to mutioRbitAl multibaNd neTwORks), funded with €6m from the European Union’s Horizon Europe R&D investment programme, has completed its work to drive the evolution of 5G Advanced and pre-6G satellite networks, according to Spanish satellite operator Hispasat, one of the companies involved. During its three-year tenure, the project developed a compatible multi-orbit, multi-band and multi-satellite architecture, created new user terminals and base stations compatible with 5G satellite networks, designed and validated AI modules for network resource management, created a mission planner for the design of future satellite networks, and made progress in developing advanced security mechanisms for satellite operators. TRANTOR also carried out the first 5G NR-NTN (non-terrestrial network) broadband transmission in Europe, using Hispasat 30W-6. “This validation enables manufacturers in both the telecommunications and satellite sectors to begin developing and manufacturing terminals and base stations based on the 5G NTN standard,” noted the satellite operator. 

– The staff, TelecomTV