• Qualcomm finally pulls the trigger on $2.4bn Alphawave M&A deal
• CityFibre denies sale talks speculation 
• TalkTalk gets a warning from BT’s Openreach

In today’s industry news roundup: Qualcomm has finally struck a deal to acquire Alphawave IP Group that will bolster its datacentre product portfolio; report suggests UK altnet has held M&A talks with Virgin Media O2, but CityFibre says it’s not engaged in sale discussions; TalkTalk’s in trouble; and much more!

Wireless chip giant Qualcomm has finally struck a deal to acquire UK chip and connectivity tech specialist Alphawave IP Group (aka Alphawave Semi) for $2.4bn in a move that expands its datacentre technology portfolio and further helps the diversification strategy that is helping to boost its sales. Qualcomm has been in discussions with Alphawave since early April. The deal, which has been recommended to investors by the Alphawave board, is worth 183 pence per share: News of the deal sent the company’s stock soaring by 21.3% on the London Stock Exchange to 181 pence on Monday morning. According to Qualcomm, the acquisition of Alphawave Semi “aims to further accelerate, and provide key assets for, Qualcomm’s expansion into datacentres. Qualcomm Oryon CPU and Hexagon NPU processors are well positioned to meet the growing demand for high-performance, low-power computing, which is being driven by a rapid increase in AI inferencing and the transition to custom CPUs in datacentres.” The efficient deployment of such chips, though, requires specialist connectivity and management technology, which Alphawave has developed. Qualcomm explained: “Alphawave Semi is a global leader in high-speed wired connectivity and compute technologies delivering IP, custom silicon, connectivity products and chiplets that drive faster, more reliable data transfer with higher performance and lower power consumption.” Qualcomm president and CEO Cristiano Amon noted: “Alphawave Semi has developed leading high-speed wired connectivity and compute technologies that are complementary to our power-efficient CPU and NPU cores. Qualcomm’s advanced custom processors are a natural fit for datacentre workloads. The combined teams share the goal of building advanced technology solutions and enabling next-level connected computing performance across a wide array of high-growth areas, including datacentre infrastructure.” The news comes only days after Qualcomm finally completed the acquisition of AutoTalks, a fabless semiconductor company that has been dedicated to vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communications since 2009.

A report from The Telegraph (subscription required) has cast an unwelcome light on the precarious financial situation at major UK altnet CityFibre, which has for some time been seeking to pin down new funding that would enable its ongoing operations and expansion. The Telegraph reported that exploratory “rescue deal” discussions had been held in recent months by CityFibre investors Mubadala and Goldman Sachs with UK telco Virgin Media O2 (jointly owned by Telefónica and Liberty Global), with a potential sale as an option. One of the concerns of the investors, according to the report, is that a large chunk of CityFibre’s current business comes from UK ISP TalkTalk, which is teetering on the financial brink (see more on that below) and there’s even a suggestion that the talks with VMO2’s owners were held behind the back of CityFibre’s management. CityFibre dismissed the report. “Any speculation about a potential sale is unfounded. CityFibre is in a strong position and we expect to announce details of our financing shortly, supporting our role in consolidating the sector and accelerating CityFibr’s next phase of growth,” stated a CityFibre spokesperson. CityFibre’s current expansion strategy hinges on UK market consolidation and M&A deals, such as the one announced in March with Connexin, but it will need new funding to execute that strategy. 

If you, as an individual, fail to pay your monthly broadband access bill, it won’t be long before your ISP starts issuing demands for immediate payment: Hold back payment for a while longer and the threats of service cut-off, enforcement, debt collector visits and damaged credit ratings soon follow. Yet ISPs that don’t pay their wholesale network services suppliers don’t expect to be treated the same way, though that doesn’t mean they can get away with stalling payments without consequences. Take debt-mired UK ISP TalkTalk as a case in point. The Financial Times (FT) (subscription required) reports that BT Group’s quasi-autonomous wholesale fixed access network arm, Openreach, is so tired of TalkTalk’s unwillingness or inability to pay its account regularly that it took the unprecedented step of threatening to block new TalkTalk broadband subscribers from its network. That, it seems, is a first for the UK market. TalkTalk’s finances have been under scrutiny and under pressure for a long time: In recent years it has tottered from crisis to crisis, and came close to collapse until, in September 2024, it managed to negotiate a refinancing deal that gave it a stay of execution by covering the company’s extended debt maturities until September 2027. Nonetheless, TalkTalk is still far from financially secure and continues to haemorrhage subscribers: It lost 400,000 of them in the 12 months to this February when its user base fell from 3.6 million to 3.2 million. The ISP moved only recently to clear its debt to Openreach: No indication of the sum paid by TalkTalk has been shared but the FT estimates that TalkTalk’s monthly payments come to about £60m. On receipt of the overdue payments, Openreach has lifted its threat but could reimpose it if TalkTalk defaults again. Meanwhile several other of TalkTalk’s suppliers are rumoured to be in dispute with the ISP over unpaid fees and other services. Last month, on a call with financial analysts, TalkTalk acknowledged that it could lose a net number of 300,000 more subscribers during the current financial year, but that calculation seems optimistic as it relies on the company simultaneously attracting 100,000 new customers. Given its fraught relationship with Openreach, it is far from evident how that optimistic number might be achieved. The delayed payments have had an impact on BT’s balance sheet. Last month, BT Group CEO Allison Kirkby noted that “one challenged communications provider” has “caused headwinds” for the incumbent UK telco. She didn’t name TalkTalk, but there’s no doubt that’s the operator she was talking about.

Digital sovereignty is becoming a bigger deal by the day in Europe and, as well as being a major talking point at TelecomTV’s DSP Leaders World Forum, it was one of the key topics at the recent Nextcloud Summit 2025 in Munich, Germany, where there was much discussion about data control, security and privacy in the era of the supremacy and hegemony of US big tech companies and the manic convulsions and unpredictabilities of the Trump administration. Given the turmoil, it is hardly surprising that European cloud providers are seriously thinking about moving their workloads away from US hyperscalers, something that, hitherto, has been regarded as all but impossibly complex and dauntingly expensive. The European Parliament is also looking at introducing an International Digital Strategy. One of the keynote speakers at the Nextcloud Summit went so far as to argue that it would be “negligent” of Europe’s cloud providers to reduce their reliance on the likes of Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google and Microsoft. Such a move would, of course, be fraught with difficulties and dangers but maybe it is time for Europe to bite the bullet and make the effort to regain its sovereignty over its own data. But it’s something for which Europe’s cloud specialists are preparing. Dr Markus Noga, CTO at cloud services firm Ionos (part of Germany’s United Internet Group), told The Register during the event that Europe has the capability to make the break from the US hyperscalers and regain sovereignty, and pointed out that Ionos already has a policy to ensure it always has spare capacity. That, he claims, solves the problem of scalability because, “Most customers and their workloads are not colossal. They are looking for 200 cores, 2,000 cores, 5,000 cores, 10,000 cores, and so on.” Some European public sector and non-governmental organisations, already concerned about running into legal, regulatory and privacy hurdles, are moving at speed to re-establish their digital sovereignty, but it’s different in the private sector where little evident change is expected for the next 12 to 18 months. Nonetheless, Noga reckons the sheer business demand will force change in the near future even if regulation and legislation has to follow along behind. It seems very likely that US demands to access European residents’ data from a European-owned and sited server and under the protection of Europe’s GDPR regulation will only increase and it is high time Europe took back control of its data. US hyperscalers are worried  by the possibility, with Microsoft saying it will take the US government to court if, or more likely, when demands are made to access to customer data, while AWS recently announced an independent European governance structure for its European sovereign cloud unit by the end of this year. It will be interesting to see how such initiatives (and others) might stand up to an onslaught by the Trump administration. 

After various delays and false starts, Orange and Vodafone have launched their 5G services in Egypt. Orange got its 15-year licence in October 2024 as did Vodafone Egypt and e& Egypt (Etisalat). The incumbent operator, Telecom Egypt, was awarded its 5G licence in January 2024, some nine months earlier than its rivals. Between them, since 2019, the four operators have invested US$2.7bn on spectrum, licences and infrastructure with more to come. To help pay the cost of its licence, Orange took out an $80m loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and Banque Misr. Orange Egypt’s rollout of 5G will be phased, with initial coverage being available only in “high-traffic areas”, “key economic and administrative zones” and “future-ready industries”. It will later be expanded to make Cairo and Alexandria “smart cities” and will eventually be deployed nationwide across other Egyptian cities, conurbations and towns including Aswan, Luxor and Giza. Unsurprisingly the event inaugurating Egyptian 5G took place at the pyramids where Giza, formerly a dusty desert town some distance from Cairo, has expended to within a few hundred metres of the now bewildered looking Sphinx. Dr Amyan Amiri, the CTO and CIO at Orange Egypt, stated: “The launch of 5G services is a genuine milestone in Egypt’s digital evolution. It highlights our ongoing commitment to providing customers with the fastest and most reliable technologies available. At Orange Egypt, we believe this technology will bring meaningful improvements to people’s lives and drive growth across vital sectors that depend on advanced digital infrastructure.” Meanwhile, Vodafone says its 5G network spans more than 2,000 sites from Cairo to Upper Egypt, across numerous governorates. Amr Talaat, Egypt’s minister of communications and information technology, said the technology will “support ultrafast broadband speeds, while also enhancing the internet of things (IoT) services.”

– The staff, TelecomTV