What’s up with… NTT Data & Google Cloud, Veon, Lumen

• NTT Data and Google Cloud team up on agentic AI, cloud services
• Veon sells unit, advances D2C strategy
• Lumen tops 1,000 NaaS customers

In today’s industry news roundup: NTT Data and Google Cloud have teamed up to develop industry-specific agentic AI and cloud solutions; Veon has sold up in Kyrgyzstan and successfully tested satellite-to-smartphone services with Starlink in Ukraine; Lumen Technologies now boasts more than 1,000 enterprise customers for its network-as-a-service (NaaS) platform; and much more!

NTT Data, the giant international B2B communications and technology service provider that is part of the NTT Group, has announced a global partnership with Google Cloud to “accelerate AI-powered cloud innovations and unlock new possibilities with AI for enterprise organisations across industries.” The partners will co-develop customised cloud and AI services for enterprise users, with a focus on industry-specific agentic AI, cloud-native capabilities and sovereign cloud solutions for companies in sectors such as banking, insurance, manufacturing, retail, healthcare, life sciences and the public sector. Marv Mouchawar, head of global innovation at NTT Data, noted: "By combining NTT Data's deep expertise in AI, cloud-native modernisation and enterprise solutions with Google Cloud's advanced technologies, we are helping businesses accelerate their AI-powered cloud adoption globally and unlock new opportunities for growth." Kevin Ichhpurani, president of the global partner ecosystem at Google Cloud, added: “Our partnership with NTT Data will help enterprises use agentic AI to enhance business processes and solve complex industry challenges. By combining Google Cloud's AI with NTT Data’s implementation expertise, we will enable customers to deploy intelligent agents that modernise operations and deliver significant value for their organisations.” The market the partners are chasing is already large and growing quickly: According to research firm Gartner, the global spending on public cloud services – including cloud infrastructure services such as infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS), platform-as-a-service (PaaS) and software-as-a-service (SaaS) – hit $595.7bn in 2024 and is set to increase by more than 21% year on year to $723bn in 2025. For more about the partnership and the types of companies the partners are working with, see this announcement. 

At a time of the year when many companies go quiet (mainly because their top level execs and public relations managers are on holiday), Veon is issuing announcements on an almost daily basis. Following regulatory clearance, the international telco has just completed the sale of its 50.1% indirect stake in Sky Mobile LLC, operating under the Beeline brand in Kyrgyzstan (a small central Asian market), to Eldik Bank. As a result, Veon now has operations across five markets – Ukraine, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. “This transaction follows Veon’s previously announced strategy to simplify its group structure and optimise its portfolio, focusing on countries with larger populations and with opportunities to grow multiple scalable digital businesses in addition to its connectivity offerings,” noted Veon in this announcement. 

Meanwhile, Kyivstar, Veon’s operation in Ukraine, has just “successfully conducted a test of satellite and terrestrial network integration using Starlink Direct to Cell [D2C] technology,” the operator noted in this announcement. Kyivstar announced its satellite-to-smartphone service partnership with Elon Musk’s Starlink at the beginning of this year: The partners now say they expect to “commercially launch Direct to Cell connectivity in the fourth quarter of the year starting with messaging services.” Given Ukraine’s ongoing conflict with Russia and the importance of reliable communications services, the country’s government is very positive about the development. Mykhailo Fedorov, first deputy prime minister of Ukraine and minister of digital transformation, stated: “This is an important step in the development of infrastructure that will provide access to communication even in places where traditional networks are absent. Despite all the challenges of wartime, we continue to develop innovative solutions, because reliable communication under any circumstances and in any location is one of our key priorities. Therefore, this Kyivstar project is an example of effective partnership between the state, business, and technology companies, which opens the way to the future of communication without borders. Oleksandr Komarov, Kyivstar CEO, added: “This cutting-edge technology is a breakthrough for Ukraine as well as Kyivstar. We continue to invest in the most advanced technologies, not only to provide seamless services for Ukrainians today, but also to define the connectivity landscape of Ukraine for the future. We look forward to making this transformative capability available for our customers in the coming months." 

That announcement came only days after Veon reported a 5.9% year on year increase in second quarter group revenues to $1.09bn, while earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) increased by 13.2% to $520m. The operator’s sales were boosted by a 56.6% year on year increase in direct digital service revenues, which accounted for 16.5% of total group revenues, compared with just 5.4% a year earlier. To find out more about Veon’s digital services strategy, check out our exclusive interview with the operator’s chief digital operations officer, Lasha Tabidze.

US network operator and B2B services specialist Lumen Technologies reports that it now has more than 1,000 customers on its network-as-a-service (NaaS) platform, which was launched in late 2023. The service combines “on-demand resources with advanced networking technologies” to give enterprises “high-performance connectivity” and “seamless access to hyperscalers such as AWS, Microsoft, and Google Cloud, as well as third-party datacentres, via strategically located cloud on-ramps,” according to Lumen. The NaaS offer is delivered via Lumen’s “unified network architecture”, which is the result of the integration of four previously separate network architectures and which is now provisioning the vast majority of new Ethernet and IP data services in major US metro markets. Expanding and bolstering that unified network architecture is one of the main strategic goals outlined by the company earlier this year when its management unveiled a 30% increase in its capex budget to $4.2bn for 2025 in order to meet the intercity network services needs of its major customers and capitalise on the growing demand for AI-fuelled data network capacity. Lumen still has a way to go before it turns around its financial performance, though, as its recently-announced second quarter results showed: For the three months to the end of June, Lumen reported a 5% year on year decline in revenues to $3.09bn and an operating loss of $603m, though that figure was negatively impacted by a goodwill impairment charge of $628m.

What a difference a few days can make in The White House. Having lambasted Intel CEO Lip-bu Tan and demanded his resignation last week, US President Donald Trump had a change of heart this week, met with Tan, and described his “success and rise” as an “amazing story”, reports CNBC. Tan is in the process of trying to revitalise Intel and hardly needs such distractions but now he is in the crosshairs of the President, despite the hint of an olive branch, and Intel and US government officials are now set to meet to discuss the chip giant’s future plans in the US. It’s hard to imagine that a peaceful settlement won’t involve some kind of unplanned commitment to the US economy, as fellow chip vendors AMD and Nvidia found out recently when they were given the conditional green light to start exporting once again to China.   

Netomnia, the US fibre access network altnet that stands a better chance than most of its peers of surviving and thriving in the long term, has launched its wholesale platform, “opening up its national footprint” to business broadband service providers, mobile operators and other wholesalers seeking to enter new areas of the UK. It plans to extend the wholesale service offer to retail ISPs later this year. Netomnia says its network, built on XGS-PON technology (to enable 10 Gbit/s services) and “ready” for 50 Gbit/s PON service provision, now reaches 2.56 million premises, including more than 1,000 business premises, and is on course to pass 5 million premises by 2027. “We didn’t set out to be just another wholesale provider,” stated Jeremy Chelot, group CEO of Netomnia, YouFibre and brsk. “We’ve engineered a platform that outperforms – built for scale, flexibility, and a seamless partner experience. We’re giving providers faster, simpler access to high-quality infrastructure, without the usual barriers,” he added. Netomnia recently announced the addition of 54,000 new retail broadband customers during the second quarter to take its total to 341,000. 

– The staff, TelecomTV