• Acquisition in Germany bolsters Boldyn’s private networks business 
• Samsung’s latest AI-enabled smartphones are out 
• StarHub teams with Nokia for network API exposure

In today’s industry news roundup: Shared infrastructure specialist has splashed some cash to acquire a mobile private networks business in Germany; Samsung will be hoping its Galaxy S25 devices can help it claw back some lost market share; Singapore mobile operator turns to Nokia to advance its network API strategy; and much more!

Shared network infrastructure provider Boldyn Networks has once again opened its wallet to bolster its mobile private networks (MPN)s business with an agreement to acquire Munich-based Smart Mobile Labs (SML), which Boldyn describes as “Germany’s market leader in bespoke private 5G networks”. The purchase price was not disclosed. According to Boldyn, the acquisition will bring with it about 30 experienced staff and more than 50 mobile private network deployments, taking Boldyn’s total number of MPN implementations “across the five largest European economies” and the US to 110. “The strategic acquisition enhances Boldyn’s technical knowledge for critical sectors, tailored use cases, and the further development of its private 5G-as-a-service offering,” which was launched in October last year. “Germany is a very attractive market for mobile private networks. By bringing Smart Mobile Labs’ expertise to Boldyn, we’ll be able to scale our existing private networks expertise to benefit customers looking for a partner of choice across a wider area of Europe,” stated Justin Berger, Boldyn’s group chief strategy officer. The company’s CEO, Igor Leprince, added: “At Boldyn we have been leading the way in reimagining customers’ digital transformations through dynamic private 4G and 5G networks. As an important player in the fast-rising private network ecosystem, Smart Mobile Labs will support our expansion in the top-five markets in Europe and globally. SML comes with an impressive customer base across key sectors for us, which rely on their strong technical capabilities, innovation, and a market-leading partner network.” The acquisition of SML is expected to close before the end of the first quarter. This isn’t the first time Boldyn, which adopted its current name in 2023, has indulged in some M&A activity to bolster its MPN capabilities. In November 2023, it announced the planned acquisition of Edzcom, Cellnex’s private wireless networks unit, and closed that deal in early March last year: That acquisition also came with more than 50 MPN deployments. 

Samsung Electronics has banged the AI drum very loudly with the launch of its new smartphones, the Galaxy S25 Ultra, Galaxy S25+ and Galaxy S25, which were unveiled at the company’s Galaxy Unpacked 2025 event in San Jose, California. “AI agents with multimodal capabilities enable Galaxy S25 to interpret text, speech, images and videos for interactions that feel natural,” noted the vendor, which will be looking to the Galaxy S25 models to help boost sales and its smartphone market share, which dipped last year. For more on the Galaxy S25 devices, see this announcement from Samsung and this press release from wireless chip giant Qualcomm.   

Singapore’s StarHub is the latest mobile operator to get excited about the potential of network API exposure. The telco is using Nokia’s Network as Code platform and associated developer portal to “give developers access to its network capabilities and create software applications that work across its 5G and 4G networks”. StarHub CTO Ayush Sharma stated: “We are pleased to deepen our partnership with Nokia to deliver a simplified and improved developer experience. Giving developers access to a wider selection of attractive network APIs is critical to unlocking the full value of 5G and 4G networks in Singapore and the wider region.” Expect to hear a lot more of network APIs in the run up to, and during, this year’s MWC25 show in Barcelona. Keep track of key developments in TelecomTV’s dedicated Telco APIs channel. 

Swiss vendor Huber+Suhner, which sells an extensive range of optical, radio, cable and passive network components, has reported a 5% increase in revenues for 2024 to 893.9m Swiss francs (CHF) ($983m) thanks, in part, to an uptick in its communications product unit, which registered a 26.1% increase in revenues for the full year to CHF353.6m ($389m). “The communication segment recorded double-digit percentage growth in order intake and net sales, making a significant contribution to the group’s overall development,” noted the vendor. “This was mainly due to a major project to expand the mobile communications infrastructure in India and successes in the datacentre growth initiative thanks to investments in artificial intelligence (AI). The subsegments communication equipment manufacturers components and fixed access network also generated higher orders compared to 2023 – despite weak global demand in the communications market, which continued through 2024.”

We’ll have to wait a bit longer to find out if Telecom Italia (TIM) can successfully offload its Sparkle international business to Italy’s Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) and Retelit, a provider of communications and IT services to the Italian enterprise sector, which jointly offered €700m for Sparkle at the end of last year. The evaluation of the offer was due to be completed by 27 January but despite what Telecom Italia described in a transaction update as “the positive evolution of negotiations”, the telco has agreed to “an extension until 15 March to allow the finalisation of the preparatory steps for the final decision on the offer.” No one appears to be in a hurry… The news comes a few days after Sparkle announced it had opened a “new point of presence (PoP) in Brasilia to support the growing demand for international connectivity in Brazil”.

Google has reportedly invested another $1bn in generative AI (GenAI) developer Anthropic, Ars Technica has reported. Google has previously pumped $2bn into the company, which is believed to be on the cusp of a separate $2bn investment from multiple venture capital firms that would value it at about $60bn.

– The staff, TelecomTV