• Microsoft to pump $17.5bn into India
• Vodafone cuts voice software upgrade time by 75%
• e& embraces GenAI with Amdocs

In today’s industry news roundup: Microsoft is investing heavily in AI and cloud infrastructure to support the provision of sovereign digital services in India; Vodafone and Spirent have developed an automated testing platform that is dramatically improving the efficiency of the telco’s voice platform upgrades; e& UAE is using amAIz to deploy GenAI tools across its operations; and more!

India is fast becoming a major datacentre and AI nation and, like many, it is working hand in hand with major US hyperscale companies to enable sovereign digital services. Microsoft has pledged to invest $17.5bn in the country over the four calendar years from 2026 to 2029 “to advance the country’s cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, skilling and ongoing operations”. The sum is in addition to the $3bn committed to cloud and AI infrastructure investments in India announced at the start of this year, which is due to be spent by the end of 2026. The latest investment announcement follows a meeting between Microsoft chairman and CEO Satya Nadella and India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, during which they “discussed the country’s AI roadmap and growth priorities. Microsoft’s investment in India focuses on three pillars – scale, skills and sovereignty – aligned with the prime minister’s vision of building a comprehensive ecosystem that drives AI innovation and access at a national scale,” noted Microsoft. The big tech firm noted it is working with the Indian authorities to “drive the country’s leap from digital public infrastructure to AI public infrastructure in the coming decade. We are shaping a future that is more equitable and uniquely Indian in its scale and impact.” Puneet Chandok, president of Microsoft India and South Asia, elaborated on the three pillars of the investment: “Hyperscale infrastructure to run AI at scale; sovereign-ready solutions that ensure trust; and skilling programmes that empower every Indian to not just join the future but shape it.” As such, one of the “key priorities” of Microsoft’s investment programme is to build “secure, sovereign-ready hyperscale infrastructure to enable AI adoption in India. At the heart of this effort is the significant progress being made at the India South Central cloud region, based in Hyderabad, that is set to go live in mid-2026. This will be our largest hyperscale region in India, comprising three availability zones, roughly equivalent in size to two Eden Gardens stadiums combined.” The tech giant added: “We will also continue to expand our three existing operational datacentre regions in Chennai, Hyderabad and Pune. This expansion provides organisations across India [with] greater choice and resilience, enabling low-latency, mission-critical performance for enterprises, startups and public sector institutions.” Microsoft, of course, isn’t the only hyperscaler pumping big bucks into India AI/cloud infrastructure – see Google Cloud and Bharti Airtel prep $15bn AI hub in India and Tata Comms lands ‘AI backbone’ deal from AWS.

Vodafone Group claims it has reduced by 75% the time it takes to introduce software upgrades to its expansive core voice infrastructure, following the deployment of a new automated testing platform that the operator jointly developed with Spirent Communications, the test and measurement vendor recently acquired by its peer, Keysight Technologies. The development and deployment of the new platform is part of Vodafone’s drive to “automate the deployment of new software releases, which are now implemented every three months by vendors across all markets,” the telco noted in this announcement. It added: “By automating the testing and deployment of new software features from multiple equipment vendors, Vodafone can enhance its core voice network and deliver services to customers more quickly while maintaining quality and addressing any bugs beforehand. This approach also means Vodafone is well prepared to take advantage of the increasing number of software releases anticipated with the rollout of cloud-native 5G standalone core technology, which the company is deploying across Europe. As networks become more programmable, automated testing is a key strategy for maintaining resilience.” Fragkiskos Vellis, head of core enablers and solutions at Vodafone Group, stated: “Cloud-based core 5G standalone networks are highly programmable and responsive engines, driving new features like network slicing. However, these advancements introduce added complexity. Our new automated testing platform, developed with Spirent, allows us to check and deploy software at scale.”

Middle Eastern digital service provider giant e& is to use amAIz, the generative AI (GenAI) platform developed by Amdocs, to “integrate GenAI into its business systems” in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). According to the vendor, e& UAE will use the amAIz “library of predefined telco agents and skills that can improve business efficiencies, reshape customer experience and interactions, and increase revenue opportunities in multiple telco domains.” Amdocs will also provide “a telco-specific guardrail control mechanism, with logging and auditing capabilities, role-based access control, and privacy compliance measures, to deliver a safe and secure approach to GenAI integration.” Marwan Bin Shakar, acting chief technology and information officer (CTIO) at e& UAE, stated: “By being one of the first service providers to integrate generative AI, we are helping lead the industry’s transformation toward an AI-driven future. We are deploying telco-specific agents with built-in guardrails to enhance customer care, retail, and network operations, delivering faster resolution times, smarter recommendations and clear efficiency gains. This is a pragmatic step that scales innovation responsibly, securely, cost effectively, and with tangible outcomes for our customers.”

Ambient voice, which is “enabled by [the] pervasive deployment of microphones and the emergence of enhanced AI tools, including speech-to-speech models and contextual understanding”, is the latest topic to be put under the Disruptive Analysis spotlight by industry analyst Dean Bubley. “There is significant potential for capturing in-person, on-premise audio streams and integrating them into enterprise applications and workflows,” he notes in this LinkedIn post. “But can telcos or CPaaS players move beyond the 140-year-old ‘phone call’ ideology around voice and address this blindspot?” he ponders. Check out the post for the link to Bubley’s in-depth analysis of the ambient voice opportunity.  

– The staff, TelecomTV