• Nvidia unveils an AI blueprint for telco network configuration 
• Orange Business cosies up to Nvidia at VivaTech 2025 
• BT reportedly casts an M&A eye over TalkTalk

In today’s industry news roundup: Nvidia used its GTC Paris event during VivaTech 2025 week to unveil large language models (LLMs) customised for telcos; Orange Business cemented its relationship with Nvidia as its parent company made the most of its role at VivaTech; BT is believed to be mulling a potential bid for beleaguered UK ISP TalkTalk; and more!

The opening day of the annual VivaTech innovation and startup event in Paris has witnessed a number of announcements from France’s national telco, Orange and AI tech giant Nvidia, which held its inaugural GTC Paris event as part of the VivaTech programming. Starting with the AI vendor, it performed its usual trick of making dozens of simultaneous announcements to coincide with a keynote speech from its CEO Jensen Huang (more on him later). Specific to the telecom sector, Nvidia unveiled its AI blueprint for telco network configuration, which aims to automate network optimisation processes and deliver significant savings to telcos. “Telecom companies last year spent nearly $295bn  in capital expenditures and over $1tn in operating expenditures,” noted Nvidia, citing numbers published by MTN Consulting. “These large expenses are due in part to laborious manual processes that telcos face when operating networks that require continuous optimisations. For example, telcos must constantly tune network parameters for tasks – such as transferring calls from one network to another or distributing network traffic across multiple servers – based on the time of day, user behavior, mobility and traffic type. These factors directly affect network performance, user experience and energy consumption,” it noted. The blueprint is based on customised large language models (LLMs) “trained specifically on telco network data – as well as the full technical and operational architecture for turning the LLMs into an autonomous, goal-driven AI agent for telcos,” it noted. Telenor is the “first telco to integrate the AI Blueprint for telco network configuration as part of its initiative to deploy intelligent, autonomous networks that meet the performance and agility demands of 5G and beyond,” stated Nvidia. Knut Fjellheim, chief technology innovation officer at Telenor Maritime, added: “The blueprint is helping us address configuration challenges and enhance quality of service during network installation. Implementing it is part of our push toward network automation and follows the successful deployment of agentic AI for real-time network slicing in a private 5G maritime use case.” Read more.

In addition, more than 200 European companies and universities are developing AI-native wireless networks using Nvidia’s 6G Research Portfolio, the vendor announced. The vendor launched its 6G Developer Program last year and unveiled an AI-native stack for 6G in March this year.  “Using Nvidia platforms, tools and libraries, European telecommunications institutions are accelerating efforts to develop 6G – the next generation of cellular technology, with AI woven in from the start. 6G will be an AI-native platform that fosters innovation, enables new services, enhances customer experiences and promotes sustainability,” the company stated in this blog. 

As for Huang’s keynote, his speech has been summarised here, but as you’d expect he talked up Europe’s role in the AI era, noting that the region isn’t “just adopting AI – it’s building it.” To that end, Nvidia announced that European AI developers and infrastructure players, including Mistral AI, Nebius, Nscale, Firebird, Fluidstack, Hydra Host, Scaleway (part of the Iliad Group) and Together AI are “now contributing Nvidia Blackwell and other Nvidia architecture GPUs to the marketplace, expanding regional access to high-performance compute,” while Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure are contributing compute resources to the DGX Cloud Lepton Marketplace, which provides regional access to AI and infrastructure resources via a single platform. 

As for Orange’s efforts at VivaTech… In addition to the launch of a quantum-safe networking service by Orange Business, the telco’s enterprise services division, the operator and its Software République partners have collaborated with firefighter units to unveil vision 4rescue, a “system of interconnected technological solutions aimed at increasing the efficiency and improving the coordination of rescue and emergency services”. It also showed off the capabilities of more than 60 startup partners in a special showcase on the VivaTech show floor (Hall 1) and announced a closer collaboration with AI tech giant Nvidia. Building on the launch in late 2024 of Live Intelligence, which enables “companies of all sizes to securely deploy GenAI at scale”, Orange Business has become an NvidiaCloud Partner in the Nvidia Partner Network, which “enhances Orange Business’s capabilities, allowing it to leverage Nvidia’s cutting-edge GPU technologies and full-stack software solutions,” noted the service provider in this announcement. At the heart of that move is data sovereignty, which is fast becoming a major factor in telco enterprise service strategies. “Organisations are looking to protect sensitive data, ensure compliance, and build trust. Orange Business can deploy AI solutions on its own Cloud Avenue platform, with datacentres located in Europe, via on-premises or hybrid setups, which reinforces trust and compliance with local regulations… customers will benefit from Orange Business’s ability to offer tailored, strategic consulting support for complex AI projects, accessible to all businesses,” it added. Usman Javaid, chief product and marketing officer at Orange Business, stated that the “Orange Business and Nvidia collaboration will democratise access to AI and accelerate enterprise adoption through Live Intelligence platform, offering best-in-class AI technologies while maintaining a strong focus on sovereignty.” You can see Javaid talk more about enterprise AI developments in this recent TelecomTV interview.  

That’s not the end of the Orange news… At the Transform London event, Twilio announced that it is partnering with Orange to scale the use of RCS Business Messaging across France. “This partnership represents a major milestone in the evolution of mobile messaging in the country, providing French and international businesses with a rich, interactive, and secure communications experience directly in their messaging app.” According to Twilio, RCS already covers over 70% of the mobile base in France as of June 1, 2025 (representing more than 45 million smartphones) and is projected to reach 85% by the end of the year. “In this context, Orange has chosen Twilio’s globally recognized expertise to support the deployment of this next-generation messaging solution. Trust and transparency have become central to customer expectations. RCS fully addresses these priorities by enhancing the credibility and impact of brand communications,” added Twilio.  

The latest scuttlebutt in the UK telecom sector, courtesy of The Telegraph (subscription required), is that BT Group might cook up a takeover bid for beleaguered broadband service provider TalkTalk, a move that would bolster the UK national telco’s broadband customer base by more than 3 million and also save TalkTalk from potentially going out of business. That’s an important element, as TalkTalk is a major customer of Openreach, BT’s quasi-autonomous wholesale fixed access network division, which has already had to issue warnings to TalkTalk about late payments. But such a deal would be quite problematic for a number of reasons, not least from a competition standpoint – the likes of Virgin Media O2 won’t want BT to become an even stronger broadband rival – while TalkTalk also has a significant wholesale network services relationship with Openreach rival CityFibre. What’s becoming increasingly clear, though, is that TalkTalk is teetering on the brink (financially) right now and some sort of rescue package will likely be required. Unfortunately, that rescue isn’t likely to come from TalkTalk’s investors, who already stumped up additional capital last year to prop up the company as it restructured.

In the world of quantum computing, US quantum technology specialist IonQ, which is already well known to the quantum-safe networking sector, has struck a deal to acquire Oxford, UK-based Oxford Ionics for $1.075bn (comprising $1.065bn in IonQ stock and about $10m in cash, subject to customary closing adjustments and expenses. According to Oxford Ionics, “the transaction will bring together IonQ’s quantum compute, application and networking stack with Oxford Ionics’ groundbreaking ion-trap technology manufactured on standard semiconductor chips. The combined technologies are expected to deliver innovative, reliable quantum computers that increase in power, scale, and problem-solving capabilities. Both companies expect to benefit from the other’s complementary technologies, deep expertise, and IonQ’s global resources and established customer base.” IonQ, which holds a controlling stake ID Quantique (which has worked with many telecom firms over the years), struck a multi-faceted partnership with SK Telecom as the South Korean operator moved to integrate quantum technology into its AI infrastructure assets and AI applications – see SK Telecom adds quantum to its AI mix with IonQ. 

– The staff, TelecomTV