What’s up with… Deutsche Telekom, Telefónica, Orange 

• Deutsche Telekom and Nvidia unveil €1bn ‘AI cloud’ 
• Telefónica reports ‘solid’ Q3
• Orange Marine adds to its fleet

In today’s industry news roundup: DT and Nvidia lift the lid on the ‘world’s first industrial AI cloud’; Telefónica is sticking with its full year guidance; Orange Marine is adding two ships to its fleet to help strengthen the EMEA region’s subsea network infrastructure; and more!

It’s been a big day for Deutsche Telekom (DT), which, as well as announcing a major upcoming mobile network infrastructure request for quotation (RFQ) process, has unveiled a major and much-trailered initiative with AI technology giant Nvidia. In this press release, the Germany-based operator declared that together with Nvidia it has “jointly built the world’s first industrial AI cloud – a €1bn partnership”. The partners are collaborating on the construction of an ‘AI factory’ at an existing datacentre in Munich, installing 10,000 Nvidia Blackwell GPUs to power AI systems and building what DT described as a “Deutschland stack” that will go live from January 2026. “Companies will be able to book and use the computing power of the ‘AI factory’ as needed. The construction of the factory will increase AI computing power in Germany by around 50%,” DT added. In line with recent trends, the emphasis is on securing German and European cloud and AI sovereignty. “Mechanical engineering and industry have made this country strong,” said DT CEO Tim Höttges. “But here, too, we are challenged. AI is a huge opportunity. It will help to improve our products and strengthen our European strengths. In just six months, we [will] turn an idea into real AI computing power.” DT is providing the physical infrastructure, while German software giant SAP is supplying its SAP Business Technology Platform and applications – including modern AI technologies. Companies that plan to use the new AI factory for their own purposes include Agile Robots, Perplexity, PhysicsX, Quantum Systems, Siemens and Wandelbots. DT noted that the Industrial AI Cloud is also one of the first flagship projects of the Made for Germany initiative that aims to “strengthen Germany as a business location and accelerate the digitalisation of the economy and administration”. Launched in July 2025, the initiative now has 105 members that have jointly committed to investing €735bn to strengthen Germany as a business hub. DT further emphasised that the conversion of the Munich datacentre into an AI factory is “taking place independently of the [European Union] project for the promotion of the construction of several AI gigafactories throughout Europe”. DT is keen to build one of up to five so-called AI gigafactories – large-scale facilities equipped with approximately 100,000 state-of-the-art AI chips. DT’s enterprise services unit T-Systems has previously indicated that the initiative with Nvidia “is aiming to become part of the European AI gigafactories to come in the next few years”. See image below for the key figures involved in Deutsche Telekom’s AI factory.

It has also been a big day for Telefónica. The Spanish telco hosted its Capital Markets Day in Madrid on Tuesday, during which it unveiled the long-awaited outcome of its strategic review, as well as group results for the third quarter (Q3) and first nine months of 2025. You can read about the strategic review here.  As for the results, chief operating officer Emilio Gayo described them as “solid” enough to allow the group to “confirm our full-year guidance of revenue, EBITDA and EBITDAaL-capex growth, with capex to sales ratio below 12.5%”. On an organic basis, group revenue increased by 0.4% in Q3 to €8.96bn. EBITDA rose by 1.2% to €3.07bn. The Brazilian business reported the highest revenue growth of 6.5% in the quarter, followed by 1.6% in Spain. However, Telefónica Deutschland, which is continuing to grapple with the fallout of losing a key national roaming deal with 1&1, the country’s fourth infrastructure-based telco, saw revenue fall by 6.6%. Telefónica Hispam also reported a 3.6% revenue decline. The group is in the process of exiting Latin America (apart from Brazil) and has just completed the sales of its businesses in Ecuador and Uruguay to Millicom. It has also sold its operations in Argentina, Colombia and Peru (see this article), although the completion of the Colombia sale (also to Millicom) is still pending. For more information about the results, see these reports.

Orange Marine, a subsidiary of Orange specialising in submarine cable work, is planning to build two new cable ships to “strengthen the resilience of submarine cable networks in Europe, the Middle East and Africa”. The new ships, to be built by Sri Lankan shipyard Colombo Dockyard, will replace the Léon Thévenin (1983, based in South Africa) and the Antonio Meucci (1987, based in Italy), currently responsible for cable maintenance in the Atlantic, Indian Ocean, Mediterranean, Black Sea and Red Sea. Delivery of the ships is expected in 2028 and 2029. They will mainly be dedicated to submarine cable maintenance and will also be capable of laying connecting segments up to 1,000 kilometres long. Orange Marine noted that four ships will operate in the Atlantic, the English Channel, the North Sea, the Indian Ocean, the Mediterranean, and the Red Sea. In addition, Orange owns two ships specialising in cable laying and one reconnaissance ship (marine survey) through Orange Marine and its Italian subsidiary Elettra. Didier Dillard, president of Orange Marine and Elettra, commented that the “aging of the cable ship fleet is a major concern for all players in the submarine cable industry. Building these new ships will enable Orange Marine and Elettra to have the most modern fleet in the world, serving all our clients globally, with an optimized environmental footprint”. Michaël Trabbia, CEO of Orange Wholesale, also observed that Orange “manages over 450,000km of undersea cables connecting all continents. This strategic investment in our fleet of cable ships will be a key to ensuring the resilience and security of the global Internet”. Orange Marine says its ships represent 15% of the world’s cable ship fleet. Notably, the Sophie Germain ship launched in 2023 handled the cable landing operations in Marseille for the Medusa Submarine Cable System.

ETSI’s Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC) Industry Specification Group has released a comprehensive set of specifications for its Phase 4 work, accompanied by a whitepaper, developed in collaboration with the Linux Foundation’s Camara project and TM Forum, that offers developers practical guidance for universal access to service APIs across the industry. “The whitepaper clarifies how ETSI MEC service APIs complement open-source implementations like Camara service APIs. It focuses on aligning definitions from a developer’s perspective, identifying commonalities and offering best practices for API exposure and interworking,” noted ETSI in this announcement. 

UK state-funded industry body Digital Catapult has announced the entry of six Open RAN vendors to its advanced connectivity programme, with the aim of driving the development, deployment and diversification of open networks in the UK. The new cohort includes Antwerp, Belgium-based Accelleran; UK-based Antevia Networks; Benetel from Dublin in Ireland; G Reigns, part of the Taiwan‑based HTC Group; Poland-based IS-Wireless; and Taiwan’s Pegatron – all of which are bringing their own products and technologies to the programme. According to Digital Catapult, the next phase of the programme “will support vendors to trial real-world products and services for scaling and commercialisation” in its testbed environments. Digital Catapult has been certified by the O-RAN Alliance as an Open Testing and Integration Centre (OTIC) with the aim of building “resilience in the UK’s advanced connectivity infrastructure and supply chains”. Joe Butler, chief technology officer, noted that the body is the “first OTIC in the UK enabling us to further our objective of supporting open network innovation for private and national networks, and support the journey of vendors bringing their product innovations to market. Badging and certifying participants will be key to scaling new Open RAN innovations, supporting vendors that may not otherwise have the recourse or capacity to trial and validate their solutions. As an OTIC, we can provide a trusted environment to rigorously test solutions, and this next phase of our programme will support UK operators by reducing integration complexity and diversifying the market with reliable new solutions”. Together with UK regulator Ofcom, Digital Catapult is responsible for delivering SONIC Labs (SmartRAN Open Network Interoperability Centre), a “commercially neutral, collaborative, environment for testing interoperability and integration of open, disaggregated and software-centric network solutions and multi-vendor architectures” that is funded by the UK government’s Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT). Since launching, the lab has tested 71 Open RAN products from 26 global vendors.

Middle East telco and tech giant e& and Amazon Web Services (AWS), in alignment with the UAE National Cyber Security Strategy, have announced the commercial availability and full operational readiness of the UAE Sovereign Launchpad, “a cloud offering that accelerates the adoption of cloud and AI services for UAE government agencies, along with regulated customers in healthcare, financial services, education, space, oil & gas, and non-profit sectors,” the partners announced in this press release. “Powered by AWS, offered by e& and endorsed by the UAE Cybersecurity Council (CSC), the UAE Sovereign Launchpad contributes to UAE’s journey toward a more secure national digital infrastructure,” they noted. “It enables government agencies and customers to deploy all workloads, except those classified as secret and top secret, while ensuring alignment with the UAE CSC’s National Cloud Security Policy,” they added. 

– The staff, TelecomTV