What’s up with… High-risk vendors, Telus, Telefónica

• GSMA warns of high-risk vendor replacement costs
• New Telus CEO makes his mark
• Telefónica teams up for AI-enabled X-ray analysis

In today’s industry news roundup: EU rules that would force operators to replace high-risk vendor equipment could cost telcos up to €40bn, according to GSMAi; new Telus CEO announces plans to consolidate its consumer and business services units into a single division; Telefónica’s tech division partners with an AI firm to launch AI-powered X-ray analysis; and much more!

The time, effort, bother and cost of replacing network systems deemed to be a security risk continues to weigh heavily on European operators, which would much rather just be able to deploy the technology they believe best suits their needs. And to stress this point, seven major European telcos have commissioned a new report published by GSMA Intelligence (GSMAi) that concludes that the region’s operators could be smacked with up to €40bn in costs under European Commission proposals for the removal from their networks of equipment supplied by designated high-risk vendors (HRVs). The EC is proposing to strengthen cybersecurity requirements as part of its updated regulatory framework Cybersecurity Act 2 (CSA2), which includes provisions requiring the removal of equipment provided by HRVs from telecom infrastructure within a given timeframe. Several operators have already been forced by national governments to reassess their usage of equipment supplied by Chinese vendors, such as Huawei. The report estimates that the proposals will result in €30bn-€40bn in direct costs for operators, split across mobile (up to €22bn), fixed (€5bn) and transport networks (up to €12bn). The study also found that, should the proposals become law, it will likely drive up equipment prices due to increased competition, with mobile equipment costs predicted to rise by 24%, significantly impacting investment in the sector. The figures were gathered based on information provided by Deutsche Telekom, Italy’s Fastweb + Vodafone, Meo (Altice Portugal), Orange, Telefónica, United Group and Vodafone Group to GSMA Intelligence, with the data aggregated by the research team. The report is available for download here. 

Victor Dodig, who took over as CEO of Canadian telecom operator Telus at the start of July, hasn’t taken long to make his mark. The telco has announced that it is consolidating its consumer and business services units into a single division and has appointed David Fuller, who is rejoining the company after seven years away, as group president of Telus Communications, with effect from 1 September. Zainul Mawji, who is currently head of Telus Consumer Solutions, is leaving the company. Navin Arora, who is currently CEO of Telus Business Solutions, will become group president of the company’s Global Platform Businesses, with oversight of Telus Health, Telus Agriculture & Consumer Goods, and Telus Digital Solutions. He will also be in charge of corporate strategy, Telus Global Ventures, corporate development and the telco’s datacentre strategy. Dodig noted: “As Telus strengthens its financial foundation, sharpens operational focus, and drives profitable growth, these changes to our organisational structure and leadership ensure we are set up to deliver on that strategic plan. The telecom industry is evolving rapidly and we are positioning Telus to lead through that change by improving how we serve our customers, streamlining decision-making and better positioning our organisation to achieve its financial and operational objectives and deliver greater value to our shareholders. This reorganisation is the first step in a transformation to meet that challenge.”

Telefónica Tech, the digital enterprise services division of the Spanish incumbent telco, has partnered with global healthcare technology firm Harrison.ai to offer an artificial intelligence-based solution supporting the diagnosis of chest X-rays. The solution, which is initially being deployed in Spain, incorporates a diagnostic support algorithm that can help healthcare professionals analyse chest X-rays, automatically identifying up to 124 clinical findings, including early stage cancers. It uses data trained on more than 780,000 X-rays and labelled by qualified radiologists, and meets standards legally required by European legislation. It integrates into existing healthcare systems and infrastructure, with Telefónica providing the integration, AI and data expertise, as well as managed maintenance and ongoing support services for hospitals.

Vodafone Portugal has partnered with Satellite Connect Europe to launch commercial satellite direct-to-device (D2D) services in Portugal. With plans to have a service up and running by the end of 2027, Vodafone Portugal is aiming to become the first operator to offer D2D services in the country, bringing connectivity to areas that currently are not covered by terrestrial networks. Satellite Connect Europe is the joint venture between AST SpaceMobile and Vodafone Group, offering satellite connectivity and D2D services in partnership with telcos using AST SpaceMobile’s BlueBird satellites – which are due to come into commercial service next year – and Satellite Connect Europe’s space-to-ground gateways. The joint venture was officially launched earlier this year and is working with the likes of VodafoneThree, Orange, Telefónica and more.

Taiwan’s national operator Chunghwa Telecom, which recently shared its AI datacentre deployment insights, has struck a two-year strategic partnership with Fujitsu and 1Finity (a Fujitsu subsidiary) with the aim of further expanding the application of All-Photonics Network (APN) technology, based on the innovative optical and wireless network (IOWN) approach to next-generation networking, in the country and to jointly explore the “future applications of quantum technologies.” Chunghwa Telecom, which activated the world’s first IOWN APN in 2024, has been conducting APN verification with Fujitsu in Taiwan for the past couple of years. Chunghwa’s CTO, Hey-Chyi Young, stated: “As Taiwan’s leading telecommunications company, Chunghwa Telecom is pleased to partner with Fujitsu and 1Finity and develop APN to provide smarter, greener and more resilient optical communication infrastructure with deterministic network performance and quantum-safe networking for diverse innovative applications in the AI era, which promote early access of the convenience brought by information and communication services for the society and people in Taiwan.”

Schwarz Digits, the IT and digital division of Germany multinational Schwarz Group, has opened its new campus, which provides a working hub for up to 5,500 staff across five buildings, in Bad Friedrichshall. The division, which is increasingly well known for its Stackit cloud platform, believes the “physical proximity strengthens collaboration across all digital services and creates a thriving environment for the development of digital technologies from and for Europe.” The ‘for Europe’ part is key, as Schwarz Digits/Stackit is working with a number of telcos, such as KPN and BT International, on the development and provision of sovereign cloud services. Christian Müller, CEO of Schwarz Digits, stated: “With our sovereign technology stack, we offer a reliable answer to the pressing questions of global digital dependencies. At the new campus, technological independence becomes a living reality: Here, we’re developing the IT architectures of tomorrow that will restore unrestricted data sovereignty to companies and public institutions. This location stands for uncompromising technological excellence in accordance with the highest European data protection standards. It marks the beginning of a new era of innovation speed, in which we will no longer merely manage digital sovereignty from within the European legal framework but will actively shape it.” 

Telefónica’s global infrastructure subsidiary has expanded its footprint in the Caribbean after launching a new point of presence (PoP) in the Dominican Republic. The PoP is located at the NAP Caribe datacentre in Santo Domingo and boosts Telxius’s reach in the region. It already manages a submarine cable landing station in Punta Cana, as part of its network, which consists of more than 100,000km of subsea and terrestrial fibre worldwide. NAP Caribe is a neutral interconnection hub in the Caribbean

Google has connected its Nuvem transatlantic subsea cable to a landing station at Sines, Portugal, adding to the growing number of data network routes between Europe and North America, reports Reuters. The Nuvem cable, first announced in 2023, runs for about 7,000km between Myrtle Beach, South Carolina and Sines, via Bermuda and the Azores, and boasts 16 fibre pairs that give it a total potential capacity of 384 Tbit/s. The cable, which is set to become operational in 2027, will boost Portugal’s efforts to become a European AI datacentre hub, as the country also has subsea cables that connect Europe to Africa and Brazil. 

Still in the subsea networking world… Ribbon Communications is to provide PT Jala Lintas Media (JLM), a domestic and international data network operator based in Indonesia, with its Apollo platform for a new optical (DWDM) subsea network link between Indonesia and Singapore. JLM is also deploying Ribbon’s datacentre interconnect (DCI) system to connect facilities in Indonesia and Singapore, the vendor announced. 

And there’s more… The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) is inviting companies to submit plans for a new submarine cable, the Sambungan Kabel Dasar Laut MADANI (SALAM), that will link Peninsular Malaysia with Sabah and Sarawak (two Malaysian states on the island of Borneo). The new network, which will comprise 10 cable landing stations (CLS) interconnected via four submarine cable segments that will total 5,582km in length, will enable “more robust and geographically diverse domestic connectivity network,” noted the MCMC. “By expanding network capacity and strengthening route diversity, the project will improve service continuity and support more resilient communications infrastructure nationwide,” it added. According to TechWireAsia, Malaysia’s government has allocated 2bn ringgit ($489m) for the project. 

Private equity firms KKR and Vauban Infrastructure Partners are competing to acquire a 54% stake in Portuguese wholesale fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) network operator DStelecom, according to Bloomberg. The stake could cost up to €200m. With a network that reaches about 1 million premises, DStelecom serves retail broadband service providers, such as Meo (Altice Portugal), NOS and Vodafone. 

– The staff, TelecomTV