• T-Mobile US opens its Cyber Defense Center
• French operators hold out for SFR deal
• Turkey’s mobile trio splash $2.95bn on 5G spectrum

In today’s industry news roundup: T-Mobile US has opened a new cybersecurity facility and a briefing centre for B2B customers and partners to check out its cyber defence operations; Bouygues Telecom, Iliad and Orange are holding firm on their initial €17bn takeover offer for Altice France/SFR, despite an almost immediate rejection; Turkey’s three main mobile operators have all secured 5G spectrum in the country’s latest auction; and much more!

T-Mobile US has opened a new Cyber Defense Center, “a purpose-built facility that is designed to enable its security teams to better detect, disrupt and respond to cyber threats in real time,” the operator announced. It has also launched its new Executive Briefing Center, a “gateway for enterprise customers and partners to explore T-Mobile’s technology in action”. These two new facilities are part of T-Mobile’s existing Business Operations Center, which enables an “integrated programme for cybersecurity, innovation and resilience at T-Mobile,” according to the operator. Mark Clancy, T-Mobile’s SVP of cybersecurity, stated: “Our new Cyber Defense Center is the heartbeat of T-Mobile’s cybersecurity operations and an embodiment of all the investments we’ve made to better safeguard our customers and their data. We’re not waiting for attackers to show up – we’re actively hunting them down around the clock, 24/7. Our teams think like them, experiment like mad scientists and learn from every threat to improve our defences and give customers more peace of mind when they choose T-Mobile.”

The three French operators that saw their joint bid to acquire Altice France (SFR) for €17bn almost instantly rejected by their takeover target on Wednesday have refused to panic and are holding firm with their initial offer. In a new joint statement in response to Altice France’s rebuff, Bouygues Telecom, Iliad (Free) and Orange say they “remain convinced of the relevance of their bid and of the value of the project they are pursuing for the market and all its stakeholders, customers, employees, creditors and shareholders. Indeed, such a project would both preserve a competitive ecosystem to the benefit of consumers and support continued investment in national telecom infrastructure,” they noted. The trio will, therefore, “maintain their offer and wish to engage in constructive dialogue with the Altice group and its shareholders in order to assess how this project could progress going forward.” This looks very much like it’s going to be a long game of cat and mouse that will mainly benefit the bonus payments of the legal and financial services teams supporting the various parties. 

Turkcell, Turk Telekom and Vodafone Turkey have splashed out $2.95bn to secure 5G spectrum licences for airwaves in the 700 MHz and 3.5 GHz bands in Turkey. Turkcell spent the most, at $1.22bn, while Turk Telekom bid $1.1bn and Vodafone spent $627m. The operators will be able to use the airwaves to offer commercial services starting on 1 April 2026. 

Rakuten Symphony has joined the Telecom Infra Project (TIP), at a time when, according to Rakuten Symphony, “an expanding and influential TIP board is reigniting its mission to deliver high-quality connectivity with faster times to market, at a fraction of the cost, and with greater supplier resiliency and optionality.” Vivek Murthy, president of OSS at Rakuten Symphony, noted: “We’re excited for Rakuten Symphony to join TIP as the organisation and its board of directors recommit to goals we are similarly pursuing – that the telecom industry needs to deliver better connectivity at lower costs with a much broader ecosystem of suppliers than what is available today. Our immediate engagement with TIP begins in data observability, data management and service assurance. The more we can align between existing and new best practices, the less the friction of change and solution fragmentation that appears later,” added Murthy. The TIP community will gather in Dublin on 3-5 November for the Fyuz 2025 event, where TelecomTV will be on hand to check to what extent the TIP mission has been reignited (we hope it has).  

Ericsson Ventures is just one of a number of investors to have participated in the $11m Series A funding round just closed by Launchpad, an “AI-first robotics company powering real-world assembly automation” that is based in El Segundo, California, and Edinburgh, Scotland. Launchpad says its technology is “reimagining the manufacturing industry with AI and advanced robotics to power firms’ critical automation strategies”. Read more. 

– The staff, TelecomTV