• Conecta Infra raises $350m for LatAm DCI network
• Digi Communications acquires UK fibre player
• Amazon preps its Transformer

In today’s industry news roundup: Conecta Infra aims to hook up Latin America's major digital infrastructure sites with a neutral optical transport network; Romania’s Digi acquires a majority stake in UK altnet Whyfibre; Amazon is reportedly having another go at developing a smartphone; and much more!

São Paulo, Brazil-based Conecta Infra has raised $350m to build a new, wholesale optical transport network that will aim to connect the continent’s main datacentre and connectivity hubs, such as subsea network landing points. The company is developing more than 6,000km of network infrastructure, connecting Argentina and Chile to Brazil’s main datacentre facilities and will offer a range of datacentre interconnect (DCI) services, including dark fibre, dedicated cables, exclusive ducts and technical infrastructure to telcos, content providers, datacentre operators and global tech companies. The launch comes during a “rapid expansion of digital infrastructure across Latin America, driven by the growth of cloud computing and increasing demand for processing capacity to support artificial intelligence applications,” noted the company, adding that “connectivity between datacentres is becoming critical infrastructure: Just as supply chains rely on highways to move goods, the digital economy depends on high-capacity fibre networks to transport data between facilities, submarine cable landing stations and major urban centres.” Rafael Pires, founder and CEO of Conecta Infra, stated: “We are witnessing a new wave of digital infrastructure investment in the region, led by hyperscalers and global datacentre operators. Conecta was created to provide the connectivity infrastructure required to support this next generation of digital networks.” 

Just as others are looking to exit the saturated UK fibre access network sector, Romanian network operator Digi Communications, which has operations in Italy, Spain and Portugal as well as Romania, has entered the UK fibre broadband sector by acquiring a 51% stake in the somewhat appropriately named Whyfibre for an undisclosed sum. According to Digi, Whyfibre owns a fibre network currently under deployment in the counties of Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire in southern England: Using that network, Digi’s UK subsidiary Fiber One, “expects to commence the provision of fixed broadband services on a pilot basis in the near future,” noted Digi in this announcement. Digi generated annual revenues of €2.22bn and adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of €585m in 2025 and ended the year with 32 million customers across its four main markets.  

A decade after abandoning its first effort to develop its own smartphone with its Fire Phone, Amazon is believed to be ready to have another go at challenging the likes of Samsung, Apple, Google, Xiaomi and many more established vendors with a device dubbed the Transformer. Citing four sources with knowledge of the development, Reuters reported that the device is being developed within Amazon’s devices and services unit to be a “potential mobile personalisation device that can sync with home voice assistant Alexa and serve as a conduit to Amazon customers throughout the day”. Although details related to potential pricing, timelines and supply chain were not available, the Transformer device’s operating system is reportedly being designed to have AI at its foundations (of course!), make it quicker and easier for users to buy from Amazon.com, watch Prime Video content and generally more easily consume any services offered directly by Amazon or its key partners. It’s fair to say the reaction to the news, for example in this Wired article, has been either neutral or negative.   

Cisco is using the occasion of the annual RSA Conference to unveil “significant security innovations designed for the agentic AI ecosystem” that help to “address AI security issues and remove a top barrier to agent adoption”, the vendor has announced. In a recent Cisco survey of major enterprise customers, 85% reported experimenting with AI agents, but just 5% had moved agentic technology into production. By “building security into the foundation of the emerging AI economy”, Cisco aims to provide companies with the capabilities to establish trusted identities, enforce strict zero-trust access controls, harden agents before deployment, enforcing guardrails at runtime, and give security operations centre (SOC) teams “the tools to stop threats at machine speed”. Jeetu Patel, president and chief product officer at Cisco, stated: “AI agents aren’t just making existing work faster; they’re a new workforce of co-workers that dramatically expand what organisations can accomplish. Projects shelved for lack of resources are now within reach. The only limit is imagination, and security teams are the key to unlocking this opportunity by making the agentic workforce safe enough to trust.”

German digital services specialist q.beyond, which focuses on the needs of small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in multiple markets, including Latvia and Spain as well as Germany, has set itself a target of achieving annual revenues of €250m in 2028, more than 30% higher than the €182m to €190m sales forecast for 2026. “The combination of organic growth, AI revenues and targeted M&A activities will form the foundation for long-term value growth,” noted q.beyond. The company, which offers a range of managed AI, data, cloud and connectivity services, aims to extend its “market leadership in the logistics and retail sectors” and  enter “high-growth sectors, such as healthcare and energy”, which are “facing far-reaching structural changes that will require specialised IT and AI solutions”, during the next couple of years. The company notes that its addressable market in Germany alone is significant, as it believes there are about 70,000 medium-sized companies with revenues of more than €10m in the country that need help to make the most of AI: “q.beyond is developing from an IT service provider into an AI orchestrator for European SMEs,” stated CEO Thies Rixen.

The 5G Automotive Association (5GAA) and the 6G Smart Networks and Services Industry Association (6G-IA) have pledged to continue working together by renewing their memorandum of understanding (MoU).  Christof Schmidt, director-general of the 5GAA, stated: “This renewed agreement strengthens the bridge between current 5G deployment and the evolution towards 6G, ensuring that future networks are shaped by the needs of the automotive and mobility ecosystem from the outset. Working closely with 6G‑IA allows us to align innovation, trials and standardisation with real deployment priorities.” Dr Colin Willcock, chairman of the 6G-IA, added: “This agreement between the 5G Automotive Association and the 6G Smart Networks and Services Industry Association is vital to ensure that we maximise the impact of 5G technology and ensure that 6G technology is developed in a manner that takes the requirements of the automotive industry into account.” For more on the 5GAA’s latest developments, watch this recent interview with the association’s CTO, Maxime Flament. 

Mobile operators increased their 5G packet core network investments by 83% year on year in the fourth quarter of 2025, a trend that “reflects strong momentum behind 5G standalone (SA) deployments, as well as continued focus on digital transformation and new revenue streams,” according to research firm Omdia, with Huawei, Ericsson, Nokia, ZTE and Cisco identified as the top-five leading vendors in the quarter. Globally, 88 operators have launched 5G SA networks, “creating monetisation opportunities through network slicing, ultra-reliable low-latency communications (URLLC), and enterprise-focused services,” noted the research firm in this press release. Roberto Kompany, principal analyst for mobile infrastructure at Omdia, noted: “The surge in 5G core investment underscores CSPs’ strategic focus on enabling new revenue streams and digital transformation. This momentum is reflected in AT&T’s nationwide 5G SA and RedCap [reduced capability] deployment and Verizon’s launch of a new enterprise-grade fixed wireless access (FWA) slice,” he added. 

– The staff, TelecomTV