Orange advances towards full ownership of Spanish JV

What happened: Orange signed a binding agreement to acquire the remaining 50 per cent stake in its Spanish JV MasOrange from partner Lorca for €4.3 billion, moving towards full ownership of the business.

Why it matters: The transaction follows an initial agreement reached at the end of October and is subject to regulatory approval and customary closing conditions, with completion expected in the first half of 2026. Orange said the deal would accelerate its strategy and strengthen its position in Spain, its second-largest European market. The operator added the deal “confirms its long-term industrial commitment” in the country and its “confidence in MasOrange and its management to create value for all stakeholders”. CFO Laurent Martinez said the acquisition “marks a decisive step in strengthening Orange’s leadership in Europe”, citing MasOrange’s scale of more than 30 million customers. MasOrange was created last year through a merger of Masmovil and Orange’s Spanish operation, following Lorca’s acquisition of Masmovil in 2020. Thomas Railhac, partner at Lorca backer Cinven, said the deal punctuates MasOrange’s “transformational growth story” of becoming Spain’s largest mobile operator, with its enterprise value rising from €5 billion to more than €20 billion.

US halts technology trade talks with UK

What happened: The US suspended technology-related trade talks with the UK, halting progress on a bilateral “technology prosperity deal” agreed during US President Donald Trump’s state visit to Britain in September.

Why it matters: According to the BBC, Trump’s administration paused discussions last week amid frustration over the pace of wider trade negotiations as the US lobbies for concessions beyond the scope of the technology partnership. The agreement, designed to boost cooperation in areas including AI, quantum computing and nuclear energy, reportedly also included £31 billion in investments from US heavyweights including Microsoft, Nvidia and Google. Despite the setback, a spokesman for UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer told the publication the UK remains in “active conversations with US counterparts at all levels of government”, while cautioning that “negotiations of this kind are never straightforward”. Allie Renison, director of communications company SEC Newgate UK, told the BBC the impasse reflected the countries’ “slightly piecemeal approach” to trade deals. “Instead of having everything done at once, different areas are being linked to different parts,” she said, adding that concerns in other trade areas were feeding into technology talks. While questions remain over the pledged investments, Renison argued the disruption was unlikely to be more than “a bit of posturing in the wider negotiations”.

Ericsson, stc strike deal to drive digital in Saudi Arabia

What happened: Ericsson signed a five-year agreement with stc to support the development of Saudi Arabia’s digital infrastructure, with a focus on 5G hardware and software, cloud-native technologies and advanced AI capabilities.

Why it matters: Under the agreement, stc will use Ericsson’s latest portfolio to accelerate its 5G expansion and advance the rollout of standalone (SA) 5G, 5G-Advanced and massive MIMO. The operator said SA 5G features, including network slicing, will enable it to deliver differentiated connectivity across a range of consumer and enterprise use cases, supporting its aim to develop a “scalable, resilient and future-ready mobile network”. The partnership also aims to support Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 government programme, alongside longer-term readiness for 6G and self-optimising networks. Abdullah Alowini, supply chain VP at stc, said the agreement will help accelerate enterprise innovation and support the country’s ambition to “build a globally competitive digital economy”. Ericsson and stc have a long-standing partnership, which has included the rollout of one of the country’s first 5G networks in 2019. The deal also strengthens Ericsson’s presence in a strategically important market, following its announcement earlier this year its new Middle East and Africa headquarters will be in Riyadh.

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Under the deal, Orange Money customers can generate a virtual Visa card directly through the operator’s Max it app. The card can be funded at any time from an Orange Money account and used for secure online payments on local and international websites. A physical card option is expected to follow at authorised Orange Money outlets.

The tie-up builds on existing deployments of the service in Botswana, Madagascar and Jordan, where the partnership has now been renewed. It also follows a successful new launch of the Orange Money Visa virtual card in the West African country of Cote d’Ivoire.

The partners now plan to expand the service into additional markets including Guinea, Burkina Faso and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Orange Money CEO Thierry Millet said the tie-up “will help make Orange Money a widely accepted payment method” across the continent.

Ismahill Diaby, VP and general manager for Western and Central Francophone and Lusophone Africa at Visa noted the partnership will help “bring the advantages of the digital economy to millions of people across Africa”.

“By combining Visa’s trusted technology with Orange Money’s local reach, this partnership offers a simple, secure way for more people and small businesses to pay online – helping them participate confidently in everyday commerce,” he added.

Orange serves more than 173 million customers across 17 African countries, with 45 million active Orange Money accounts.

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The transaction between Orange and Lorca, which is backed by investment companies Cinven, KKR and Equity Partners, is subject to regulatory approval and other closing conditions being met. It is expected to be completed in the first half of 2026.

Orange positioned the deal as accelerating a group-wide strategic plan while bolstering its position in its second largest market in Europe.

It added the move “confirms its long-term industrial commitment in Spain and its confidence in MasOrange and its management to create value for all stakeholders”.

MasOrange was formed from the combination of Masmovil and Orange’s operation in Spain in 2024.

Masmovil had been bought out by Lorca in 2020.

GSMA Intelligence data from Q3 places the operator as the largest in Spain by mobile connections with 26.2 million, ahead of Telefonica on 16.4 million and Zegona Communications-owned Vodafone Spain with 12.8 million.

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Having served as director general of the French Cybersecurity Agency from 2014 to 2022, Poupard “is a recognised expert in cybersecurity”, Orange stated.

He currently serves as deputy CEO of Docaposte, a subsidiary of La Poste Group, overseeing digital technologies including cybersecurity, AI and cloud computing.

Orange stated he would take responsibility for “defining and embodying” its strategy on sovereignty and trust.

He is also to work in close collaboration with Orange Business and Orange Cyberdefense to accelerate the development of offerings around security, AI and cloud in the B2C and B2B markets.

Poupard is scheduled to take on the role from 1 February 2026, reporting to CEO Christel Heydemann.

Last month, Heydemann came together with Deutsche Telekom counterpart Timotheus Hoettges to issue a joint statement outlining the importance of digital sovereignty in Europe.

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During a media roundtable hosted in London to launch the 7^th edition of its annual Security Navigator 2026 report, Charl van der Walt, head of security research at Orange Cyberdefence, said today’s online environment marks a “society wide crisis” as more organisations suffer cyberattacks that “impact critical infrastructure, telecommunications, defence contractors, satellite systems and more”.

A key driver of this shift is the growing “balkanisation” of cyberspace, where technology ecosystems are fragmenting along geopolitical lines. “Almost everything that we do in security, in some way, goes back to the US,” he said, referring to vulnerability disclosure, threat intelligence, law enforcement action and standards.

He added that only a handful of nations, primarily the US and China, can build full sovereign technology stacks, increasing Europe and smaller countries’ “dependency to this supply chain”. While Europe is attempting to rebalance through initiatives such as releasing its own vulnerability databases, Van der Walt said the “asymmetry is huge”.

Orange Cyberdeference CTO Vivien Mura added that AI is another pain point, stating the technology “is an opportunity, but it also introduces new risks”. Attackers “use AI to speed up the coding development of malwares,” shortening the time between vulnerability disclosure and exploitation. The report also found misuse risks linked to the rapid adoption of chatbots across organisations, which Mura said is expanding the attack surface.

Web of interdependence
Van der Walt noted attackers now operate within a “dense web of interdependence where a single weakness can enable mass compromise”. He said the dataset from the report reflects direct engagement with real-world attacks and defences. “One of the aspects in which we can truly be unique is that we are we are on the ground with clients… and this year, more than ever, to surface their voices.”

The latest Security Navigator threat detection research was based on analysis of 139,373 detected security incidents recorded over an 11-month period between October 2024 and August 2025.

The report found that the number of distinct cybercrime groups has nearly tripled from 33 to 89 since 2020, driven in part by the commoditisation of cybercrime “as a service”, which has lowered the barrier to entry for attackers.

The company also recorded a 45 per cent surge in cyber extortion victims between October 2024 and September 2025 compared to the previous research period, with two-thirds of victims now small and medium-sized businesses. Cyber extortion was heavily concentrated in sectors central to supply chains and essential services. Manufacturing and professional industries alongside scientific and technical services together accounted for nearly 40 per cent of observed cases, followed by wholesale trade, construction and healthcare.

For the first time, the report also included a law enforcement dataset covering activity between 2021 and mid-2025, showing global cooperation on the rise. Orange Cyberdefense chief Hugues Foulon called for accelerated collaborative efforts, stating “the fight against organised cybercrime requires a global alliance, both public and private, to confront a threat that knows no borders”.

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Discussing some of the barriers to responsible and sustainable use of genAI, the executive noted large language models (LLMs) essentially function like neural networks, making it difficult to correct any problems.

“You don’t have things you can tweak” if the model gives an inappropriate answer, he noted. “The only thing you can do is retrain them” by exposing them to “hundreds of thousands of pages” with better information.

“It’s very archaic, it’s like LLMs are behaving like humans. There’s nothing I can do to force you to trust me, I need to spend months and years showing you that I’m trustworthy”.

“It’s very hard to train a brain. It’s very hard to train an LLM.”

“This is problematic. We need to work with start-ups to change that”.

Nvidia
Sovereignty of digital infrastructure has been a major talking point within Europe in recent years, with politicians and a range of companies in the region pushing it as a priority.  

Referring to the “monopoly” held by Nvidia for GPUs, Zerbib told Mobile World Live there is a “huge cognitive dissonance of talking about sovereignty and independence, then relying on just one company” for a part of the system.

“This is not an anti-American statement,” he emphasised. “What I’m looking forward to is at least competition in the US”, an area he predicts something is “going to happen” in.

The ability to build a competitive GPU in Europe seems to be such a challenging goal

Bruno Zerbib, CTIO Orange

“It’s out of our hands right now. The ability to build a competitive GPU in Europe seems to be such a challenging goal”.

“We need to have a long-term goal of getting there. Maybe in five-to-ten years from now. In the meantime, let’s have French or European LLMs, British LLMs and then let’s make sure the agent layer is completely sovereign”.

The executive noted hyped agentic AI technology offers the potential for a “snowball effect” if something goes wrong with one part of the chain, with Orange currently assessing how it can curate and vet agents to ensure they are trustworthy and reliable.

Science drive
One area Zerbib is clearly enthused about is the need to ensure AI technology is compatible with environmental ambitions at the operator and more broadly.

“We live in a world that’s so depressing,” he said. “Either you say you don’t believe in climate change, or you don’t believe in the ability to innovate without hurting the planet. The two outcomes are really bad: it’s either I don’t care or I care and I’m giving up”.

“I believe in a third option”, he added, explaining a need to return to the mindset of 70 years ago where “the brightest people wanted to solve the biggest problems”.

“They really thought 70 years ago that we could change the world with science, and science and technology were combined. We’ve lost that to some extent, we’ve turned engineers into technicians that have been producing the same thing at scale, because we needed scale”.

“We have our smartest engineers with an incredible background in, for instance, mathematics and physics, and they end up being developers”.

He added although being a developer is “great”, there is a need to “redirect a percentage of those great minds into science, because what we need are breakthroughs that come from science”.

“It’s not just about building the next feature it’s really about trying to come up with something that will be much more disruptive”.

The attitude around science remains in China, Zerbib said, “but we’ve lost that in the West and we really want to get back to this notion of science is central to progress”.

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In a joint statement, Deutsche Telekom CEO Timotheus Hoettges and Orange chief Christel Heydemann said digital sovereignty has become a “top EU strategic priority” which must be built on four principles: control over secure digital infrastructure; greater choice through interoperable European alternatives and technology ecosystems; competency via stronger digital skills; and achieving scale to fuel innovation and competitiveness.

The pair stressed these ambitions will require “massive investments, bold political decisions, and active engagement of all stakeholders”.

To achieve these goals, the bosses called for a more investment-friendly regulatory environment and urged the EU to adopt a “bold Digital Networks Act”, a proposed reform designed to modernise the region’s telecom rules and create a more integrated single market.

On AI, Hoettges and Heydemann said the EU must become “a true AI continent and not a mere consumer”. While telcos already use AI to create “more efficient, smart and agile networks”, they stressed that operators also have a duty to enable access to AI tools and computing resources for industry, academia and the public sector.

Additionally, the companies pushed for common EU sovereignty rules in cloud services, alongside a stronger commitment to favour European providers in public procurement. “This will enable the necessary scale for a more competitive and resilient European cloud ecosystem,” they noted.

“As leading European telecom operators, we are committed to strengthening Europe’s digital sovereignty and enhancing its global competitiveness,” the pair concluded, calling for “ambitious and effective reforms”.

Their comments come after Europe’s top operators warned the European Commission last month that slow progress on the Digital Networks Act risks leaving the region behind the US and Asia.

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The service is set to be offered to 5G users with a Google Pixel 9 or Pixel 10 for free for the first six months. After the initial period it plans to charge €5 per month.

Message Satellite, as it will be branded, is set to be available on 11 December and uses mobile satellite service spectrum.

Orange Wholesale CEO Michael Trabbia (pictured, centre) said the service would use Echostar and Viasat-Inmarsat birds through technology partner Skylo, which is an NTN vendor.

Skylo previously powered US operator Verizon’s satellite messaging service and pushed a trial with Deutsche Telekom in Europe.

Last week, Skylo co-founder Tarun Gupta appeared on Mobile World Live’s Unwrapped event, where he flagged it had around 20 customers and indicated he expected an increasing number of operators to take its service.  

European first
Trabbia noted the company already used satellite broadband for fixed customers and for backhaul, but the mobile service was “something missing” before lauding Orange’s “European first” service launch.

Promoting it as “back-up connectivity”, he noted satellite could not replace current network infrastructure, illustrating the service was seen as bringing “another dimension” to what it is offering already.

Although initially limited to one brand of device and SMS functions where there is a clear view of the sky, Trabbia said in the future it may support voice and some data services. It also plans to expand availability to other devices.

Orange France CEO Jerome Henique (pictured, left) added customers could also use the service outside of France in 36 other countries.

Highlighting the benefit of connecting those in areas including on mountains and at sea, Henique noted although initially a consumer play, it plans to extend to business customers, citing logistics and transport as potential areas.

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Apple nears $1B Google AI deal to power revamped Siri

What happened: Apple is reportedly close to finalising a $1 billion annual deal with Google to license its Gemini AI model for the next-generation of Siri.

Why it matters: The partnership would see Apple tap Google’s 1.2 trillion parameter system to power smarter features like summarisation and task planning, marking an upgrade from Apple’s current 150 billion parameter model. After reportedly testing OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Anthropic’s Claude, Apple chose Gemini as an interim fix while it builds its own 1 trillion parameter AI model. Max Zhang, CEO at IT and intelligence consultancy CTOL Digital Solutions, noted the deal marks a “shift in the tech landscape” as, “for the first time, Apple acknowledges it can’t navigate the AI race solo”. Apple plans to host Gemini on its Private Cloud Compute servers, walled off from Google to maintain user privacy. “As Siri struggles with outdated tech, this partnership offers a lifeline while maintaining its fierce privacy ethos,” Zhang noted. However, he cautioned that while the collaboration provides Siri with a short term AI boost, “it also raises questions about dependency on Google for key technology”.

Deutsche Telekom, Nvidia team on €1B AI data hub

What happened: Deutsche Telekom and Nvidia teamed up on a €1 billion AI data centre in Munich, housing 10,000 Nvidia Blackwell GPUs to create one of Europe’s largest industrial AI clouds.

Why it matters: According to the pair, the facility will boost Germany’s AI capacity by 50 per cent in support of the country’s Made 4 Germany digitalisation initiative. With operations expected to begin in Q1 2026, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said the facility will “supercharge” Germany’s industrial base. Software player SAP will integrate its business platform into the cloud, linking AI models to industrial data to accelerate automation and smart manufacturing. Early partners also include Siemens, Perplexity, Agile Robots and Quantum Systems. Larbi Belkhit, ABI Research analyst, said the deal “marks a significant moment in Europe’s push toward AI sovereignty” as regional players invest in their own infrastructure instead of relying on hyperscalers. For DT, he said it “underscores its strategic repositioning to move into the GPU-as-a-service market via this AI factory,” while commercial success hinges on industrial uptake. According to Belkhit, “the real question now is what partnerships will telcos form when going to market, and at what layers of the stack?”

Orange reaches €4.2B deal for the rest of MasOrange

What happened: Orange struck a €4.2 billion deal to acquire the remaining 50 per cent stake it doesn’t own in Spanish operator MasOrange from private equity consortium Lorca.

Why it matters: The non-binding agreement strengthens Orange’s position in the group’s second-largest market in Europe, with the operator adding the deal “confirms its long-term industrial commitment in Spain”. A binding agreement is expected to be signed by the end of 2025, with completion of the transaction targeted for the first half of 2026 subject to regulatory clearance.. The buyout comes after Orange Spain and Masmovil merged in 2022 to create MasOrange, Spain’s largest mobile operator by connections. With over 25.8 million mobile lines, the operator leads rivals Telefonica’s Movistar and Vodafone Spain. In October.

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Since taking the helm in August, Cussac explained her top priority now is to “accelerate the shift to NaaS”.

She explained: “We’ve been transforming our network by adopting containerised, cloud-native technologies, effectively turning our infrastructure into software. And now, we are ready to make it available for customers and this is what NaaS is all about.”

Cussac described the overhaul as “a shift in the way we are doing our job”, calling it both structural and cultural. “We used to sell products – mobile, data, voice – and now we are selling services,” she remarked. To that end, he company has been showcasing 5G Core-as-a-Service, enabling operators and MVNOs to deploy flexible core functions on Orange’s telco cloud.

She identified scale as the crucial differentiator. “The more we add services in a point of presence, the more cost-effective it is. Thanks to the cloudification of network functions, it makes possible for us to enter the kind of cost effectiveness that we see in the cloud economy.”

To keep pace with the rapid transformation, around 800 employees are being retrained through an upskilling programme focused on cloud, IT and software-defined networking, she added.

AI uncertainty
On AI, Cussac pointed to practical deployments and “very impactful use cases on the network monitoring and incident management side” already delivering value. Indeed, the company’s partnership with US-based AI and machine-learning platform Augtera has “reduced network alarms by 70 per cent and enables predictive network management”, she explained. “This is the kind of efficiency we can get from AI,” she added, noting the technology also boosts “the cost effectiveness of our network”.

Cussac believes the AI boom is reshaping wider infrastructure priorities, creating “huge demand in capacity” and urging operators to rethink network structures. “It will impact the topology of our networks,” she warned.

She acknowledged overhanging doubt over where computing power will ultimately sit: “Would it be central? Would it be at the edge? Would it be even on device itself?” Ultimately, she said that this is the kind of uncertainty “we will have to live with”. However, keeping in step with “what is happening in this data centre topography” will allow the industry to mould capable networks “for the AI needs of tomorrow”.

Decades of cooperation
Despite the disruption, Cussac remains optimistic about the mobile sector’s trajectory. “Three things – cooperation, standards interoperability and carrier-grade quality of service – make me confident that in the future, this industry could definitely build the foundation for this new digital economy.”

For the chief, collaboration remains the industry’s greatest strength moving forward. “We have to move all together with this next generation of networks,” she concluded. “This industry relies on decades of cooperation. We have this strength as a community… this is an advantage that we should absolutely leverage.”

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Orange reached a non-binding agreement to buy out private equity group Lorca, which includes KKR, Cinven and Providence Equity Partners. A binding agreement is expected by the end of 2025, should final terms be agreed, with completion slated for H1 2026.

The deal would be subject to regulatory approval.

Bloomberg reported in July Lorca was asking at least €5 billion ($5.9 billion) for its stake in MasOrange.

Orange and Masmovil struck a deal to combine operations in Spain in 2022 after the private equity investors bought the latter in 2020 for €3 billion.

In October, MasOrange and Zegona Communications-owned Vodafone Spain were rumoured to be among the shortlisted bidders for Excom, a small telecoms provider in rural Spain.

MasOrange is the largest operator in Spain by mobile connections, according to GSMA Intelligence estimated data for Q3, with over 25.8 million. The other major operators are Telefonica-owned Movistar and Vodafone Spain which have 16.3 million and 13.9 million, respectively.

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The company upped its EBITDAal growth target for 2025 to at least 3.5 per cent from 3 per cent, after it grew 3.7 per cent year-on-year to €3.4 billion in the third quarter. The metric is mainly used to measure core profit.

Revenue during Q3 rose by €83 million to hit just shy of €10 billion, attributed to growth in retail services and partly offset by trends in wholesale and a decline in equipment sales.

Orange also highlighted strong net additions in France, Europe and Middle East and Africa, with 8.2 million new customers in the quarter, helping it towards hitting a “symbolic” milestone of more than 300 million customers in total.

In its statement CEO Christel Heydemann (pictured) was positive, noting its results highlight strength in its core business and the ability to perform well commercially in a “highly competitive market in Europe”.

Altice deal
She also commented on Orange’s joint pursuit with Bouygues Telecom and Free-Iliad to acquire Altice France’s assets, stating a deal would help make it possible to step up investments in network resilience, cyber security, AI and consolidate control over strategic infrastructure in France.

An initial offer was rejected, but the consortium have confirmed they remain committed to pursuing the acquisition.

“There is no certainty at this stage that an agreement will be reached, but we aim to create a constructive dialogue and we remain focused on the execution of our strategy,” added Heydemann.

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During the event’s opening keynote, Mupita told GSMA director general Vivek Badrinath (pictured, left) that while coverage has improved across much of the continent, usage and investment remain constrained by legacy rules and rising costs. “I think that some of the regulatory frameworks that we have across our continent were designed for the voice era,” he stated. “In the voice era, networks were built in a very capital-light approach. You couldn’t really fill up voice networks, so to speak, but you do fill up data networks very easily.”

He urged policymakers to start “with a clean set of paper” and design frameworks for digital societies rather than legacy systems. “We need a very clear roadmap towards digital Africa, the digital societies we want, and then build regulation and frameworks from there.”

Mupita added that high spectrum costs and heavy taxation continue to undermine investment, urging policymakers to rethink pricing and competition models. “Mobile network operators do not meet the cost of capital for the infrastructure that’s provided,” he said, calling for “price floors in markets so that we support and protect investments”.

Level playing field
In the keynote, Orange Middle East and Africa CEO Yasser Shaker echoed these calls for smarter regulation, stressing the need for balanced competition and sustained innovation.

“We have to ensure that we have the same playing field that all players,” he said. “I don’t think we’re only competing against operators,” he noted, adding that today, telcos also compete against fintechs, OTTs and satellites players.

Shaker explained that “clarity is very important for investment,” arguing that fair rules and consistent policy would help operators continue investing in innovation. “We just need to have the same playing field for everyone.”

Three Africas
Also on stage, Airtel Africa Group CEO Sunil Taldar noted that the continent’s digital markets are developing at different speeds, highlighting distinct challenges across regions that he described as “three Africas”. The “core Africa” of major cities such as Lagos and Nairobi where digital engagement rivals global peers and anchors the continent’s growth, the “emerging Africa” of tier-two cities shifting from voice to data, and “rural Africa,” which Taldar hailed as “the single biggest opportunity.”

“In my view, the real strength of Africa lies not only in its demand or demographics, but in its mindset,” Taldar said, hailing innovation across the continent. He called for the industry to “redefine cost economies to further connectivity and leverage AI to build greener and reliable networks.”

“Africa’s telecom story is not about catching up,” he stated. “It’s about leapfrogging… from access to productivity”.

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Financial Times (FT) reports internal Altice communications show billionaire owner Patrick Drahi dismissed the non-binding offer for certain assets made by Bouygues Telecom, Free-iliad Group and Orange.

A message from Altice France CEO Arthur Dreyfuss to staff reportedly offered little further detail, though FT noted recently reappointed Minister of Economy, Finance, and Industrial and Digital Sovereignty Roland Lescure indicated any move would have been heavily scrutinised, something not unexpected.

The politician expressed concern consolidation in mobile players from four to three could result in higher consumer prices.

Orange, Bouygues Telecom and Free-iliad argued the proposed deal would be good for consumers, network investment, protection and development. Their planned deal valued the Altice assets involved at €17 billion out of an estimated €21 billion total worth.

In a statement, Orange acknowledged Altice’s rejection of the bid.

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The trio’s offer places an enterprise value of €17 billion on the Altice assets targeted and the would-be acquirers are already pitching likely benefits for investment in superfast networks, cybersecurity, technology development and consumer competition.

France is a notoriously competitive market where mobile operators have long argued consolidation is necessary to keep their businesses viable. Altice’s finances in the country are shaky, resulting in a series of sell offs and debt restructuring deals.

Bouygues Telecom, Free-iliad and Orange likely anticipate they will face a high level of regulatory scrutiny and arranged their offer accordingly.

Their bid targets most of mobile player SFR’s assets, excluding its stakes in IT services company Intelcia, data centre player Ultraedge, fibre operator XpFibre and Altice Technical Services.

Bouygues Telecom and Free-iliad propose taking over the bulk of Altice France’s B2B operation, with the B2C unit to be split among the three suitors.

Other assets would mostly also be split between the three with a particular focus on infrastructure and spectrum frequencies, though Bouygues Telecom stands to be the sole recipient in less densely populated areas currently covered by SFR’s network.

Bouygues Telecom is likely to stump up 43 per cent of any accepted bid and valuation, Free-iliad 30 per cent and Orange 27 per cent.

Clearance
The companies emphasised there is no guarantee a binding offer will be made, explained staff consultations would be conducted and noted the need for regulatory approval.

CCS Insight director of consumer and connectivity Kester Mann told Mobile World Live the transaction would “likely invoke strong scrutiny” due to the reduction in players.

He noted SFR is the “jewel” in Altice’s crown, meaning any deal could be “one of the most significant moments in France’s telecoms history, irreversibly changing the mobile and fixed-line landscape in one of Europe’s biggest markets”.

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The move follows unanimous shareholder approval at a general meeting today (October 1), formally dissolving VOO as a legal entity, marking the culmination of a long-term plan to streamline operations and optimise network assets.

The process started when the acquisition was confirmed in 2023, with Orange announcing plans to acquire VOO in late 2021.

With the new structure, all of the operator’s assets and liabilities are transferred to Orange NetCo, a wholly owned subsidiary of Orange Belgium. The unit will operate fixed access networks, which will remain open to third-party operators to supporting potential partnerships. Other operations, including customer service and commercial activities, are now part of Orange Belgium.

Orange emphasised that the legal transition will not affect VOO customers. Existing subscriptions, services, and benefits remain unchanged. The move also brings the operator’s staff and assets under Orange Belgium and will have no impact on employment.

Orange Belgium stated the move will help it modernise its network, boost fibre rollout and pursue new revenue through partnerships and network monetisation, advancing Belgium’s digital goals and the EU’s Digital Decade 2030 targets.

Orange Belgium CEO Xavier Pichon hailed the integration as a “significant milestone” in the operator’s future growth strategy, highlighting its “focus on network leadership and customer experience excellence” moving forward.

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In the incident late in July, the hacker gained access to a system containing names, telephone numbers, SIM numbers, PUK codes and customer tariff information.

Orange Belgium stated passwords, email addresses and financial data had not been compromised.

“As soon as the incident was discovered, our teams blocked access to the affected system and strengthened our security measures,” the company added, noting it alerted “relevant authorities and filed an official complaint with the judicial authorities”.

The operator is contacting impacted customers and set-up a specific web page explaining what was accessed, how it responded and providing security advice.

It cautioned the data exposed could be used for phishing attacks with criminals potentially posing as Orange or a third-party business, so warned users to stay vigilant to such attempts.

Orange noted due to the ongoing investigation and to “protect the privacy of those involved”, it would not release further details.

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The French operator stated OpenAI’s gpt-oss-120b and gpt-oss-20b models will be integrated into its infrastructure, “making customers’ data even safer” and cater to calls for advanced sovereign AI solutions.

As an early access partner, Orange will become one of the first companies globally to deploy the new open models, implemented across a variety of environments.

These range from Orange’s large regional cloud data centres in France to small on-premises servers or edge sites.

The operator explained that by maintaining control over the deployment environment, it can host AI workloads locally across any of its 26-country footprint, while safeguarding sensitive data and complying with diverse and evolving national regulations across Europe, Middle East and Africa.

Orange added its deep AI engineering team will work to customise and distill OpenAI models for specific tasks, effectively creating smaller sub models for particular use cases while ensuring protection of all sensitive data used.

The companies also pointed to a push around driving digital inclusion and innovation across Africa, using access to the advanced models to include several African languages and build on an initiative announced in November 2024.

Chief AI officer at Orange, Steve Jarrett, said the new strategy “drives new use cases to address sensitive enterprise needs, helps manage our networks and enables innovative customer care solutions including African regional languages and much more”.

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Fielding a question about media reports on it, and rivals, mulling a swoop for assets from SFR, she noted it was “ready to engage” as “France is our first market”.

“We do see a need for consolidation,” she noted. “We think this is true in France and I think this is true in Europe”.

“We’ve been very active with consolidation in the past with Romania, in Belgium and of course in Spain now with MasOrange,” Heydemann added.

“As we know SFR is in the process of restructuring its debt and it’s not over yet, so we cannot make any comment on what they want to do. But France being our first market we are ready to engage and there are preliminary discussions on what could happen”.

She noted it was “still early”, but stated “in-market consolidation makes sense”.   

Results
In terms of its financials, the company noted its MEA division was continuing to lead revenue growth, benefiting from increased access to 4G and 5G. It also clocked gains in its mobile money and B2B segments.

Increased revenue in MEA offset drops in France, though Heydemann highlighted its “commercial performance was excellent” at home. Orange reported retail sales there were stable though wholesale revenue declined.

Revenue across the group in H1 was flat year-on-year at €19.9 billion, while it booked a consolidated net loss of €105 million due to a provision of €1.3 billion related to an employment and career path planning scheme in France known as GEPP.

It noted without the provision its net income would have been up almost 7 per cent year-on-year to €1.2 billion.   

Following the results which Heydemann described as “solid” Orange raised its full year guidance.

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Ericsson stated it holds 50 per cent of the equity, while operators AT&T, Bharti Airtel, Deutsche Telekom, KDDI, Orange, Reliance Jio, Singtel, Telefonica, Telstra, T-Mobile, Verizon and Vodafone have as expected taken the remaining stake combined.

Aduna became operational in September 2024, with a goal to create an ecosystem of companies also including hyperscalers, developers and other industry players committed to advancing APIs and establish a set of common interfaces based on the existing industry-wide CAMARA open source project.

It has also stated its work will be in-keeping with the GSMA’s Open Gateway initiative.

In addition to funding and commercial agreements, Ericsson stated the 12 operator shareholders will provide support through telecom operator relationships, knowledge of the developer community and expertise in network APIs.

Since its formation, Aduna has expanded its ecosystem, with operators including SoftBank Corp and NTT Docomo and five vendors including Microsoft and Syniverse the latest to join the effort.

Anthony Bartolo, who was named CEO of Aduna in January this year, stated closing the transaction was another important step for Aduna.

“In just ten months we have built an impressive ecosystem comprising the biggest names in telecoms and the wider ICT industry,” he said. “The closing provides renewed motivation for Aduna to accelerate the adoption of network APIs by developers on a global scale.”

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The partnership is set to focus on providing microcredit for the unbanked in Africa, with the operator division set to use Jumo’s data analytics and AI platforms to optimise credit allocation while cutting lending risk.  

Orange Money Group intends to allow its mobile money customers to request loans through their devices “without needing a bank account or collateral”. Jumo’s AI technology then “evaluates eligibility based on transactional data” with approved funds then credited.

The partnership is expected to facilitate “the rollout of various credit products across multiple markets from a multitude of funders, creating a new microfinance marketplace for the unbanked in emerging markets”.

Burkina Faso will be the first to receive the service, which will happen “imminently” followed by Mali and Botswana.

Orange Money Group CEO Aminata Kane said: “After developing transfer and payment services used thousands of times every second, we now aim to support our customers in their personal projects, as well as help them manage everyday emergencies”.

“In recent years, Orange Money has expanded its portfolio with highly accessible small loan offers. By partnering with Jumo, we aim to accelerate this momentum, roll out these services across a wide range of countries, and combine our expertise with their technology to deliver support that is even faster, more transparent, and better tailored to the needs of all our customers,” she added.

Jumo notes since its foundation in 2025 it has distributed more than $8 billion across 31 million people in Africa. Its other partners in the mobile ecosystem include Airtel Africa and MTN.

In its latest report on the mobile money ecosystem, compiling data from 2024, the GSMA highlighted a continuing trend of mobile money providers expanding their services to other financial services.

The most common of these offerings was credit with 44 per cent facilitating this as of June of that year.

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The company noted it aimed to build a cybersecurity champion for the market. The acquisition expands Orange’s presence in German-speaking parts of Switzerland to complement its existing footprint in areas where French is the primary language.

Orange Cyberdefense has been in the Swiss market since 2022 and has more than 100 experts operating in the market.

The business division noted it has a “solid reputation” in the country especially when it came to “offensive” security, serving a diverse customer base including multinationals in partnership with Orange Business.

Ensec has 40 experts working across 130 clients in Switzerland covering sectors including financial services, energy and the public sector.

Orange Cyberdefense CEO Hugues Foulon said the move “marks a significant milestone in our European development”, adding “this move not only strengthens our market position among Germanic customers in Switzerland but also underscores our commitment to build a safer digital society for our clients and partners”.

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Approval by the French Cybersecurity Agency brings the highest-level of recognition in Europe regarding the security and transparency of Orange’s Cloud Avenue SecNum platform, the operator stated.

Orange pitched the security agency’s clearance as an assurance for companies seeking to deploy services on a cloud platform, providing proof its product can reliably protect sensitive data.

Aliette Mousnier-Lompre, Orange Business CEO, said the accreditation is timely as companies face “the complexities of an ever-changing digital landscape”.

The operator quoted a customer who explained the cloud platform helps it meet various French regulations and cuts the time taken to certify its online services.

Orange Business was one of a handful of European operators Nvidia recently highlighted as working towards providing local, secure AI infrastructure for enterprises in the region.

Figures released by Fortune Business Insights late last month indicate the potential revenue benefit Orange Business and other cloud security players could glean, predicting global cybersecurity sales to grow from $193.7 billion in 2024 to $562.7 billion by 2032.

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The executive told Mobile World Live while industrial sectors holding very sensitive data with long-lasting value were usually aware of the potential future threat, most other businesses were not and are “learning from us”.

For businesses in non-critical segments retaining data with limited use in a decade’s time, he indicated rather than immediately deploying specific quantum protection systems a priority should be “identifying risk” and “building a roadmap to prepare for the future. For every organisation preparation starts now”.

Last month, the company began offering a product in Paris developed alongside Toshiba to protect data with medium- to long-term value from being stolen now, stored and decrypted once quantum computers render this a possibility.

Even for organisations in sectors including banking and healthcare, he noted deployment of its security system was on a case-by-case basis, as businesses were unlikely to need to “protect all their data and all their applications” immediately, just the “most critical assets”.

In line with technology commentators on the issue, Vigouroux was unable to pin down when quantum computing technology will be realistically accessible for criminals to use in their endeavours, estimating a rough timeline of around ten years to 15 years.

“The quantum computer will be ready at some point, but I don’t know when. Nobody knows,” he said, though warned “there are already hackers that are collecting data, storing it and waiting for a quantum computer to be ready”.

There are already hackers that are collecting data, storing it and waiting for a quantum computer to be ready

Benjamin Vigouroux, VP digital infrastructure Orange Business

“They are targeting specific industries like banks, public sector or healthcare companies that have data that is highly sensitive”. He also offered up the example of a business building a “submarine, where the data is very important for the next 25 years. You don’t want an actor to collect this, store it and decrypt it in the next seven years”.

Vigouroux noted while some enterprise digital infrastructure had been protected by widely-used encryption algorithms for the last 20 years to 30 years, these systems would likely be able to be broken using quantum computing.

In terms of the immediate plan for its recently launched Orange Quantum Defender product, the executive outlined plans to scale according to customer need to locations in France outside of Paris, before looking further afield in collaboration with partners.

Orange Quantum Defender uses a combination of quantum key distribution with post quantum cryptography in what it promotes as the first quantum-safe networking service in France.

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The newspaper reported the trio were exploring what it described as a carve-up of SFR, with the operators potentially dividing the assets between them and cutting the number of market players to three.

Its sources claimed such a move would likely be led by Iliad or Bouygues. It noted no decision on how the assets may be split had been reached and there was no certainty a deal would be struck.

Any deal would also be subject to regulatory approvals.

The report is the latest on the future ownership of SFR, which has been a regular topic in the business press in recent months.

In May, Bloomberg reported the operator’s parent company Altice France, which is controlled by billionaire Patrick Drahi, was considering offloading a majority stake. At that point the news publication indicated the business could be worth €30 billion including debt.

Earlier this year Altice France came to a deal to restructure its debt, a move deemed by the FT as making a sale more likely once complete. Its restructuring is expected to finalised in October.   

GSMA Intelligence estimates for Q2 place SFR as the country’s second largest mobile operator in France by connections with 19.4 million. Orange was the largest with 24.7 million. Bouygues was third on 18.5 million and Iliad’s Free Mobile the smallest with 14.7 million.

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A field test in a city in southwestern France was conducted following initial testing in Orange laboratories.

Orange and Samsung are advancing to the next stage, planning to expand to additional sites in the southwest and western parts of France by the end of the year.

The 4G and 5G calls employed Samsung’s vRAN software and open RAN-compliant, triple band radios, along with a Wind River cloud platform, Intel processors and Dell Technologies hardware.

Emmanuel Lugagne Delpon, CTO Networks at Orange France, said the “first call on a virtualised RAN in France, based on Samsung technology, paves the way for our future cloud RAN deployment”.

Orange and Samsung conducted an industry first 2G vRAN call on an open RAN network shared with Vodafone Group in Romania in 2024

The operator unveiled an open RAN laboratory in France using Samsung and Nokia equipment in 2021.

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The French operator stated its new Defense and Security Division aims to strengthen and develop existing activities to address key challenges around the deployment of: resilient connectivity solutions; hybridisation of civilian military networks; hosting of sensitive data; emergency communications systems; AI; and cybersecurity.

The unit will work with Orange Cyberdefense and collaborate with Orange Business on deploying, operating and maintaining digital infrastructure owned by the parent group.

Experts from various group entities will be involved in the initiative and the entity will be led by Nassima Auvray, who has been named as director.

Auvray stated the strategic division brings together a multidisciplinary team of hundreds of experts committed to “designing sovereign, resilient and high-value solutions for our clients in the defence and security sectors”.

She added the unit would use Orange’s advanced cybersecurity, AI and emerging quantum technology to meet the needs of the rapidly evolving sector.

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The Next Generation Mobile Networks Alliance (NGMN), on behalf of the operators, stated it had presented a unified 6G vision to 3GPP, advocating for the critical need for harmonised global standards as it prepares for setting the scope for Release 20.

In its 6G Key Messages – An Operator View publication, NGMN argued that standards should be built upon the features and capabilities introduced with 5G and “create value through new services”, delivering benefits to users and operators.

To that end, 6G must demonstrate clear, tangible benefits with a realistic techno-economic framework network architecture to meet MNOs criteria for “modularity, simplicity, openness, operational simplification, compatibility and interoperability, while delivering economic and social sustainability”, said NGMN.

Embrace decoupled roadmaps
The latest rallying cry consolidates messages from a previous NGMN publication published in 2023, with industry heavyweights stressing the transition to 6G should be evolutionary but not force a complete hardware refresh.

It further acknowledged fresh radio equipment will be required to deploy new frequency bands, but the evolution towards 6G in existing bands should primarily occur through software upgrades.

Laurent Leboucher, chairman of the NGMN Alliance board and Orange Group CTO and EVP Networks, insisted the move to 6G should be seamless, fully compatible with 5G and “propelled by continuous software innovation”.

“The industry must move beyond synchronised hardware/software ‘G’ cycle and embrace decoupled roadmaps,” he added.

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Promoted as the first commercial service of its kind in the country, Orange Quantum Defender uses security technology from partner Toshiba and is currently available to organisations in Greater Paris.

The service is provided over the operator’s existing commercial fibre network and provides defence based on hardware-based quantum key distribution and software-based post quantum cryptography.

Orange noted a major financial services company had already connected multiple sites to the system.

In a statement on the launch, the operator explained developments on quantum technologies would lead to new threats to sensitive data, which current public key encryption methods would be ineffective against.

It highlighted a range of segments including financial services, the public sector, critical infrastructure and healthcare were especially under threat from criminals collecting sensitive data today with a view to decrypting it when quantum computers become available.

Toshiba Corporation corporate VP Hiroshi Tsukino said: “The quantum age isn’t just some fringe concept anymore and large organisations are on the frontline when it comes to the dangers posed by powerful quantum computers,” noting it had worked for Orange for several years on developing the system being launched.

Orange Business CEO Aliette Mousnier-Lompre added the launch represented a “significant step in the Orange multi-layer quantum-safe networking strategy, as we help our enterprise customers respond to the growing and evolving security threats from quantum computing”.

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The multi-year agreement gives Orange access to high-capacity, low-latency satellite services to complement its terrestrial infrastructure, allowing it to offer customers seamless service continuity and improved security.

The operator flagged the move as key to supporting mobile backhaul and delivering resilient coverage in remote and underserved areas.

Jean Louis Le Roux, EVP of Orange International Networks, said the partnership with Eutelsat was “of strategic importance” to support customers’ digital transformation, describing the LEO-based service as a “sovereign digital connectivity” solution fit for Orange’s global footprint.

Eutelsat’s Connectivity Business Unit president Cyril Dujardin also hailed the extension of the partnership, noting LEO services are becoming “an integral technology for global telco operators”.

The deal builds on earlier satellite collaborations between the pair. Orange is the exclusive reseller of capacity on Eutelsat’s Konnect VHTS broadband satellite in France under a deal struck in 2018, while its Middle East and Africa arm signed up for Eutelsat Konnect capacity earlier this year.

The latest move also comes shortly after Eutelsat reportedly conducted discussions with investors to raise €1.5 billion to fund the expansion of its LEO satellite infrastructure.

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