• Gamma Comms confirms takeover talks
• Globe joins Candle subsea consortium
• Deutsche Telekom adds Starlink to its B2B mix 

In today’s industry news roundup: UK’s Gamma’s share price leaps as it confirms it’s in M&A talks with multiple potential bidders; Globe to light up Candle network in the Philippines; DT adds Starlink broadband to its enterprise services portfolio; and much more!

UK-based Gamma Communications has confirmed in this announcement to investors that it is in M&A talks with a number of interested bidders (without referencing any particular suitor) but added that those discussions are at an early stage and that there is no certainty of a takeover offer for the company. The news sent Gamma’s share price soaring by more than 18% to 864.2 pence on the London Stock Exchange, giving the company a market valuation of more than £760m. The company, which provides a range of communications, security and support services mainly to enterprises in the UK and Germany, reported full year 2025 revenues of £646m, up 11%, and adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of £142m, up 13%.      

Phillipines-based operator Globe Telecom has become the latest telco to sign up to the Candle Subsea Cable consortium, which is developing an 8,000km cable system linking Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. Globe joins the likes of Meta, SoftBank, Telekom Malaysia, IPS Inc and PT XLSmart Telecom in investing in the 24 fibre pair system, which was announced last year and is due to be ready for service in 2028, and which will be built by NEC. According to the Manila Times news service, the cable will connect to Globe’s Nasugbu landing station in Batangas in the Philippines’ Calabarzon region. The Candle cable plans did include a landing station at Baler in the Phillipines, but that is no longer in the works.

Deutsche Telekom (DT) has added Starlink broadband services into its offering for enterprise customers. Satellite Internet Access by Starlink (SIA) “ensures reliable connectivity at sites where fibre and mobile networks are not yet fully available or where additional redundancy is required,” noted the operator in this announcement, claiming that it is “the only network operator in Germany currently offering satellite-based business broadband as a fully managed service.” DT recently announced an agreement to offer direct-to-device (D2D) services to its customers in several European markets starting in 2028, using Starlink’s next-generation constellation of D2D-enabled low-earth orbit (LEO) satellites. 

The HAPS Alliance, which is on a mission to “unlock the stratosphere to enhance connectivity and sensing services for civilian and government applications globally” and which counts Deutsche Telekom and SoftBank Corp. among its principal members, has published a whitepaper titled 6G from the Stratosphere that outlines the “transformative role of high-altitude platform stations (HAPS) and non-terrestrial networks (NTNs) within the emerging 6G ecosystem. Positioned in the stratosphere (at approximately 20km altitude), HAPS serves as a critical bridge between terrestrial networks and satellites, creating a seamless, multi-layered architecture designed to achieve the ‘beyond-connectivity’ goals of IMT-2030 [the official name for the 6G standard],” noted the alliance.  

SK Telecom (SKT) has launched a new incubation programme to support Korean startups with a focus on environmental, social and governance (ESG) goals, according to the Korea Times. “SKTCH for Good” (SKTCH being a combination of SK and Tech) will see SKT provide up to 15 ESG startups with tailored support, such as: Mentoring and commercialisation training; collaboration opportunities; guidance on attracting investments; the chance to participate in domestic and overseas exhibitions; and access to infrastructure and office space. Applications for the SKTCH for Good scheme close at the end of April and details can be found here (in Korean). It is the first of two SKTCH programmes that the Korean operator plans to launch this year – it also revealed plans to launch a separate AI-focused SKTCH initiative in July, when SKT will select an additional 15 AI startups with which to partner. SK Telecom recently shared plans to revitalise South Korea’s startup ecosystem in the next few years by becoming an AI partner to fledgling companies.

A large-scale distributed denial-of-service (DDOS) attack on Rostelecom left millions of Russians across 30 cities unable to access internet services, according to reports. Local media reported that the DDoS attack on the state-owned telco began around 9pm local time on Monday, but some users were still experiencing problems as late as Tuesday. Rosetelecom confirmed the attack to local news outlets (in Russian) but said it had “neutralised” the attack by 11:09pm on Monday and its network has been operating as normal since. According to Cybernews, users continued to report problems on Tuesday, such as failures at several other major telecom companies, including MTS, Russia’s largest telecom operator, as well as Beeline, Megafon and T2.

– The staff, TelecomTV