• Sovereign AI fuels KT, Viettel, Fastweb + Vodafone and Ericsson action 
• Zain turns to Rakuten Symphony for its Open RAN plans 
• M&A speculation swirls around CommScope 

In today’s industry news roundup: The development of AI expertise and associated infrastructure for the delivery of sovereign AI services is at the heart of telecom sector activities in Asia and Europe; Zain is to pilot Open RAN in Kuwait with Rakuten Symphony ahead of a broader regional rollout; CommScope is mulling further asset sales, according to reports.

South Korea’s KT Corp. has teamed up with Vietnam’s Viettel Group to jointly “lead AI innovation in South-east Asia”, the operator announced in this press release (in Korean). KT, which is on a mission to position itself as an AI transformation (AX) specialist through partnerships with the likes of Microsoft, will cooperate with Viettel Group in six key areas: AX consulting; AI business development; the launch of solutions for consumers and SMEs; AI datacentre and cloud infrastructure developments; AX capabilities and the formation of a global development centre; and  joint entry into new markets. In terms of datacentre development, the partners plan to jointly build an AI-dedicated facility and a “GPU farm”, KT noted, which is another way of saying an AI factory (for the provision of sovereign AI services). KT has valued the business cooperation between the two companies at about 130 billion South Korean won (US$95m). Viettel Group is a telecom and tech firm that provides various services to 138 million customers in 11 countries including Vietnam, via the country’s largest operator Viettel Telecom, as well as other markets across South-east Asia, Africa and Central and Latin America. In 2024, it recorded sales of about $7.34bn and is in the process of repositioning itself as a company focused on AI, cloud and cybersecurity.

Sovereign AI and its associated infrastructure is an increasingly big deal in the telecom sector. In Italy, Fastweb + Vodafone, which was formed at the start of this year, has signed an agreement with the country’s Senate of the Republic to develop generative AI (GenAI) capabilities for Italian users. “As part of the agreement, Fastweb will use public documents – such as reports, dossiers, and publications – for the Italian language model for artificial intelligence (MIIA), a national language model powered by the computing capacity of the company’s supercomputer, which has been operational since July of last year.” That supercomputer is, essentially, the AI factory built by Fastweb and based, of course, on Nvidia graphic processing units (GPUs), which was put into commercial operation in mid-2024 (see Fastweb fires up its AI factory). “The collaboration with the Senate of the Republic is particularly important as it provides us with an additional valuable source of data to train our language model and develop new applications to support national institutions,” stated Walter Renna, CEO of Fastweb + Vodafone, which is part of the Swisscom empire. “Agreements and partnerships with research institutes, universities, and public and private entities for the exchange of high-quality data are essential to ensure that businesses – and especially public administrations – always maintain security and control over sensitive data, as well as the high reliability of the services offered.”

And it’s not just the telcos that are getting in on the AI factory/sovereign AI action – Ericsson is one of the members of a Swedish consortium, along with AstraZeneca, SAAB, SEB and Wallenberg Investments AB, that is to use Nvidia technology to build an AI factory “that will be operated by a joint company to offer secure, sovereign compute access to the industry partners. The consortium aims to drive new AI innovation in Sweden through knowledge sharing and boosting AI competence within industry,” noted Ericsson in this announcement. 

Zain Kuwait is to collaborate with Rakuten Symphony on a pilot project to “establish a functional cloud-native open radio access network (Open RAN) in the country,” according to the vendor. Zain Kuwait will deploy technology from Symphony’s Open RAN and cloud product portfolio at 5G standalone (5G SA) sites. The pilot is expected to be the proving ground for a broader, multi-market Open RAN deployment by the Zain Group, which operates in eight countries across the Middle East and North Africa region. Daaij Al-Oud, Zain Kuwait’s CTO, stated: “This collaboration with Rakuten Symphony marks a significant step in our journey to transform Kuwait’s telecom infrastructure. By piloting the country’s first cloud-native Open RAN deployment, we aim to unlock new levels of network agility, efficiency and scalability. This initiative is not just a technological milestone for Zain Kuwait but a strategic move that aligns with our broader vision of leading digital innovation across the region.” Sharad Sriwastawa, president at Rakuten Symphony, added: “Rakuten Symphony is pleased to support Zain Kuwait in delivering the country’s first Open RAN deployment. By venturing into networks driven by cloud-native, open principles and leveraging Rakuten Symphony’s proven portfolio, Zain Kuwait has the potential to realise the benefits of increased operational flexibility and reduced time to market, in turn delivering better performance for customers.”

The telecom M&A rumour mill has CommScope at its axis currently following a Bloomberg report (subscription required) that suggested the network equipment vendor is exploring the potential of selling its Connectivity and Cable Solutions (CCS) division to help balance its books and would be hoping to secure $10bn for the business. That would be a monumental move, as CCS is by far the largest of its units, generating revenues of $724.1m in the first quarter of this year (up 19.7% year on year), representing about 70% of the company’s total sales. Bloomberg also reported that the CommScope board might consider the sale of the whole company. Last year, the company sold its outdoor wireless networks unit and distributed antenna systems (DAS) business to electronic and fibre optic connector specialist Amphenol for $2.1bn. 

– The staff, TelecomTV