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Telefonica demos AI-enabled health checks via 5G, edge at MWC

Annie Turner
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Telefonica demos AI-enabled health checks via 5G, edge at MWC

The solutions monitor patients’ eyes to judge if cataract surgery is needed yet and white blood cells in cancer patients undergoing treatment

Telefónica will present two new healthcare solutions at Mobile World Congress (MWC) which takes place in Barcelona from 3-6 March. They use 5G, edge computing and AI to determine the need for surgery in people with cataracts and monitor the level of white blood cells in cancer patients.

Monitoring eyes for cataracts

CatEye (pictured) consists of a device connected via 5G that can determine whether a patient’s cataracts are sufficiently developed to warrant surgery. This solution was developed by Telefónica in collaboration with Edgendria Innovación, a specialist optics platform with precision servomotors applied to a specific camera. The camera can perform autonomously, without specialist oversight, to photograph both eyes. The images are sent via 5G to an AI-enabled app housed in Telefónica’s edge. 

The AI identifies certain parameters to decide whether the cataract is incipient or requires intervention by an ophthalmologist. Edgendria Innovación designed and built the device, and integrated AI into it. CatEye could allow specialist ophthalmologists to delegate certain tasks to their team so they only intervene at the right time, making better use of their time and expertise.

The device is “relatively easy to transport”, apparently, and can be used by a technician. It can be taken to areas that lack healthcare resources.

Blood monitoring

5G Intelligent Blood Monitoring comprises 5G and edge computing provided by Telefónica and the PointCheck solution developed by startup Leuko. It is intended to improve monitoring of patients who are critically ill and who might suffer severe neutropenia, which means that neutrophils, a type of white blood cell, has fallen below the threshold of 500/µl. This sometimes happens to oncology patients due to the effect of certain drugs or other pathologies, and it exposes them to high risk of infection.

Leuko’s PointCheck is a non-invasive device that captures the blood circulation on video in the capillaries of the patients’ ring finger. The video is analysed by a specially trained algorithm to infer whether the patient is at risk of severe neutropenia.

The integration of 5G with the PointCheck device allows the patient to perform this test wherever they are, reliably, securely. and According to the operator, the link provides the right levels of latency and bandwidth to transmit the video plus the metadata for analysis.

In this pilot Telefónica has also deployed the algorithm at its edge to maintain the sovereignty and security of medical data, as it does not leave the operator’s network from capture until it is delivered to medical staff. 

This solution means patients can avoid trips to hospital where there is a higher risk of infection and makes routine health checks quicker and easier. It also helps the healthcare system optimise resources as the device can be used in patients’ homes or in pharmacies or rural health centres, providing easier access to healthcare for a higher percentage of the population.

CatEye and 5G Intelligent Blood Monitoring are being promoted by Telefónica Spain Innovation with the aim of putting technology at the service of patients and healthcare professionals, increasing data transmission capacity, and minimising latency.

Protagonists in the Telefónica Agora

The solutions be showcased as part of the presentation Technologies for health, from CatEye to 5G Smart Blood Monitoring and Internet of Things at the Telefónica Agora at MWC on Wednesday 5 March, from 11:30am to 12:15pm.

Micaela Martelli, Director of Sector Solutions at Telefónica Spain, comments, “Healthcare in Spain faces several challenges due to the fact that we have one of the highest longevity rates in the world, which implies an increase in chronic diseases.

“Faced with this challenge, technology helps to improve the planning and efficiency of the healthcare system, as well as to optimize the patient experience. With the 5G network, Telefónica enables the development of technological projects focused on solving specific medical situations, such as CatEye and 5G Intelligent Blood Monitoring”.

Equinix commits to $1bn data centre in Saudi Arabia 

Simon Dux
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Equinix commits to $1bn data centre in Saudi Arabia 


The kingdom’s Leap 2025 tech show has already seen $14.9bn of commitments in AI and cloud infrastructure

While eyes focus on who signed what pledge at the Artificial Intelligence Action Summit in Paris, Saudi Arabia’s annual global tech event Leap 2025 revealed $14.9 billion of investment deals and infrastructure partnerships by domestic and international players. The latest with data centre giant Equinix which pledged $1 billion to build a 100MW AI-focused data centre for both hyperscale and retail customers. 

Equinix has been very vocal about overcoming the well documented Egyptian bottleneck through the Red Sea. In a recent blog post, senior manager of peering and interconnection EMEA Martin Atkinson makes the case for the Arabian Peninsula to become a new digital hub in the mould of Singapore, where Equinix operates five carrier-neutral Equinix IBX colocation data centres, with a sixth slated to open in 2027. Equinix also hosts 10 internet exchanges, including Equinix Singapore Internet Exchange. Of the 40 subsea cable systems that land in Singapore, 19 of them either terminate directly in or extend to an Equinix colocation facility.

Source: Equinix

On the Arabian Peninsula, Atkinson said: “There are 34 subsea cable systems landing at 18 CLSs (often at multiple CLSs, serving multiple nations). There will be between four and eight new subsea cable systems ready for service in the next several years. The landings for these new cables will need to break the historic model of regeneration and subsea pass-through to meet international demand for diversity from the Red Sea.”

He added: “This is a pivotal opportunity for cities such as Salalah, Muscat, Dubai, Riyadh, Jeddah, Duba and Neom to become key markets on a new Arabian Peninsula digital super-highway.” Beyond Saudi Arabia, Equinix operates six carrier-neutral data centers across the GCC region, four in the UAE and two in Oman, and hosts five internet exchanges, including Equinix Muscat Internet Exchange.

DataVolt goes bigger

Local data centre builder and operator DataVolt took an even bigger leap at Leap, signing a $5bn deal to develop a 1.5GW data centre campus in the kingdom’s new-city Neom’s Oxagon industrial area. This campus, with phase one expected to be operational by 2028, will initially comprise 300MW. 

As part of the agreement, Oxagon will lease DataVolt the land for the development of the facility and provide the sustainable data center operator with infrastructure support. The ambition is for the facility to be entirely powered by renewable energy, providing a fully integrated, end-to-end data center solution. The project will utilise advanced cooling technologies and is designed to operate at net zero.

DataVolt said Oxagon’s strategic location on the Red Sea coast, combined with access to sub-sea cables providing fibre connectivity, alongside cost-competitive renewable energy, green hydrogen, and a rapidly expanding industrial ecosystem, makes it the “ideal location for DataVolt to develop a large-scale green AI factory”.

Splash the cash

Other new investments in the kingdom included an announcement between Groq and Aramco Digital confirming a $1.5bn plan to expand AI-powered inference infrastructure and cloud computing; ALAT and Lenovo committing $2bn to establish an advanced manufacturing and technology centre integrating AI and robotics; Google introducing new AI-driven digital infrastructure and the launch of a computing cluster to meet regional and global demand; Qualcomm confirming the availability of its ALLAM language model on Qualcomm AI Cloud; and Alibaba Cloud launching the AI Enablement Programme comprising collaborations with Tuwaiq Academy and STC Academy to train national talent.

Databricks announced plans to invest $300 million in integrated PaaS (Platform as a Service) solutions to give application developers cutting-edge AI tools; SambaNova committed $140m to build advanced AI infrastructure; KKR, in partnership with Gulf Data Hub, revealed a strategic investment to develop data centres with a total capacity of up to 300MW; Saudi Arabia’s Salesforce invested  US 500 million to develop Hyperforce and enhance cloud capabilities for regional customers; and Tencent Cloud allocated $150 million to establish the Middle East’s first AI-powered cloud region.

The spending continued as Microsoft announced it will open a data centre academy in the kingdom, in partnership with the Dammam-based National Information Technology Academy. A bunch of VC investors including the likes of STV, Rua Ventures, Beco Capital and Waed Capital committed $497m to tech startups while Huawei showcased its Future Skills Centre, which has a goal of training 25,000 individuals in areas such as AI, the cloud and big data over the next five years.

Oh, and that $14.9bn commitment mentioned at the start was just Sunday’s monetary commitment.

Cloud RAN will make up almost 25% of market by 2029

Annie Turner
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Cloud RAN will make up almost 25% of market by 2029

New research from Dell’Oro Group finds multi-vendor RAN will account for more than 10% of the market by 2029

According to a new report by Dell’Oro Group, while Open RAN and Cloud RAN’s revenues are falling in in 2024 in line with the broader RAN market, the long-term trajectory remains healthy. 

“Our long-term position remains mostly unchanged,” said Stefan Pongratz, Vice President of RAN market research at the Dell’Oro Group. “Even with ongoing challenges and delays, we still anticipate that most operators will gradually incorporate more openness, virtualization, intelligence, and automation into their RAN roadmaps.

“At the same time, the impact will be mixed. While O-RAN fronthaul interfaces are being adopted and Open RAN is accelerating the shift towards vRAN/Cloud RAN, this vision that Open RAN will catalyze multi-vendor RAN, bring down prices, and change the vendor dynamics is fading,” continued Pongratz. 

The report find thats in the short term, the market will fall further than expected “due to a lower starting point and ongoing uncertainty surrounding the transition from ‘O-RAN ready’ to Open RAN”.  The transition to Open RAN is a gradual process – the benefits and challenges vary, which is influencing the adoption rate of O-RAN radios and vRAN baseband.

The long-term trajectory is for Open RAN to make up more than 25% of the total RAN market in 2029 and multi-vendor RAN to account for more than 10% of the market by then. As a result, ‘purpose-built RAN’ will lose roughly 20% in value by 2029. 

North America and Asia Pacific combined are projected to drive around 80% of the vRAN forecast. 

EXPLORE THE DIFFERENT RAN TECHNOLOGIES AND HOW THEY ARE EVOLVING BY REGISTERING FOR MOBILE EUROPE’S RECENT RESEARCH REPORT HERE

Open Ran Report

Colt’s NaaS to live stream Berlinale film gala in seven German cities

Annie Turner
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Colt’s NaaS to live stream Berlinale film gala in seven German cities

It’s the first time the festival has been live streamed and it relies on bandwidth that can be scaled up or down, on demand

Colt Technology Services (Colt) is to live stream the 75th Berlin International Film Festival opening gala event on 13th February for the first time to cinemas in seven cities in Germany using its Network as a Service (NaaS). Colt has been the event’s Digital Cinema Partner for more than 15 years.

Cinemas in Cologne, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Leipzig, Munich and Stuttgart, as well as in Berlin, will show the opening gala live. This includes the hosted international jury and actor Tilda Swinton receiving the Berlinale’s Honorary Golden Bear. A screening of festival’s opening file, The Light, directed by Tom Tykwer and delivered by Berlin-based film distribution company X Verleih, marks the occasion. 

The IT team at Berlinale will access the service via the user interface of Colt’s On Demand Network as a Service solution, through which companies can control and adjust their required bandwidth in real time. Capacity can be dialled up and reduced as needed, which, according to Colt is “perfect for an event that experiences huge spikes of data requirements in short bursts of time”.

“The Berlinale is constantly evolving and so are its technological requirements, so we are very happy to rely on Colt’s expertise for over 15 years,” explains Ove Sander, Technical Director Digital Cinema of the Berlinale.

“For us, this is an excellent example of the ‘extraordinary connections’ that we create with our network,” says Roxana Dobrota, Country Manager of Colt Germany. “This new major step for the Berlinale is proof of how the common goal of a high-quality customer experience and mutual trust in the partner’s know-how and experience can be translated into an unforgettable experience. We are proud of having been able to work with Berlinale time and time again for so many years.”

Colt’s Network-as-a-Service for the Berlinale includes:

• a fibre optic network of around 200km for the festival
• 2×10 Gbps lines connect the Colt network node with the Berlinale Film Office at Potsdamer Platz
• Connecting the festival’s main venues via a star-shaped network of 10 Gbps and 1 Gbps lines to the network node
• Transmitting a petabyte of data over the course of the event
• Converting all films, regardless of format, into a standardised digital format to be stored on the Berlinale servers
• Allowing film studios to upload their work directly to the Berlinale servers via a 10Gb internet connection. This saves time as it only takes 20 minutes for a package of film data to travel from Hollywood to Berlin.

Intersec turns 20: The French Tech success story

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Intersec turns 20: The French Tech success story

Partner content: December 3rd, 2024 marked a significant milestone for Intersec as they celebrate their 20th anniversary.

For two decades, Intersec, a French company founded in 2004, has embraced its identity as “geeks at heart.” Their passion for technology and innovation has been the key ingredient for their success. Today, Intersec operates in 40 countries, serving 90 tier-one mobile network operators and governments, connecting nearly one billion people and devices via their Agora platform, and achieves a dynamic growth rate of 35% per year.

2004: How it all started

In December 2004, Yann Chevalier, Jean-Marc Coïc, and Olivier Guillaumin founded Intersec to address a critical gap in the tech landscape: the rapid advancement of hardware versus the slower progress of software. The mission was to empower telecom operators with high-performance, optimized software. Their first breakthrough was a real-time database capable of managing profiles for 100 million subscribers on a single server, updating 100,000 profiles per second. This innovation set the stage for a revolutionary approach to data management.

🎥 Here’s a 2007 French national TV interview:

2012: Data scientists enrich network data in an unparalleled way

With the emergence of social media, messaging apps, and contextual marketing, Intersec data scientists started to capture, process, and organize terabytes of mobile network data, providing telcos with actionable contextualized insights and opening up a whole new world of possibilities for deeper customer engagement.

2015: Intersec offers pre-built apps on top of the platform

The processing capacity of the platform reached 1 million location events per second coming from over 100 million connected people and objects. To allow Telcos to extract value from day one, Intersec deployed ready-to-use solutions for various use cases, including location-based services, customer journey analysis, and smart city applications.

Since 2019: Intersec supports public bodies for safety and security

Leveraging AI and metadata analysis, Intersec orchestrates network metadata at a national scale, powering a cloud-native application portfolio that addresses crucial needs in civil protection, homeland security, and telecommunications. The company’s expertise encompasses a wide range of critical services, from efficiently alerting people in danger to assisting first responders in locating emergency callers and expediting law enforcement investigations.

🎥 Every signal matters in critical situations:

To learn more, visit Intersec’s 2024 annual review.

Tauron signs up a dozen operators for wholesale fibre

Simon Dux
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Tauron signs up a dozen operators for wholesale fibre


The Polish telecom and energy company is using funds from the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (KPO) to build fibre in non-commercial areas

Polish energy company and fibre wholesaler Tauron has signed up 12 operators to provide services on its fibre network built as part of the investment with the government’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan (KPO). The KPO is Poland’s strategy to revitalise its economy following the COVID-19 pandemic. Tauron is actively participating in projects funded by the KPO. 

The company is constructing a fiber network to expand broadband internet access, particularly in areas previously lacking digital connectivity. Last year, the operator announced it would expand its network in the Silesian and Lower Silesian provinces. Projects within the scope of the KPO will be implemented until June 30, 2026. Ultimately, the program is to cover 450 localities located in 58 communes in southern Poland. The total amount of funding from the KPO is over PLN 85 million. 

This investment involves the construction of over 2,000 km of a modern xPON fiber-optic network, which will be integrated into the existing infrastructure of the Tauron Group. Residents will have access to speeds ranging from 300/100Mbps to 1000/200Mbps, and address points marked as SED – socio-economic driver or in plain-speak, users requiring services with the highest parameters – will have symmetrical links of 1000/1000Mbps.

At the time, Tauron said its fibre network could reach 126,000 households in 900 locations. 

At the end of 2022, Tauron completed the construction of fiber infrastructure in the last of the seven competition areas under the Digital Poland Operational Program (POPC), which aimed to get households to at least 30Mbps. The project was implemented in seven competition areas: Krakow C and Tarnów B, Katowice and Tychy, Rybnik, Sosnowiec, Oświęcim, Wałbrzych A and Wałbrzych B.

Tauron said it aims to eliminate the so-called white spots, i.e. to extend broadband internet coverage to households and educational institutions where the available bandwidth has not exceeded 30 Mbps so far.

The 12 operators

The sale of services on Tauron’s newly built network under KPO was launched in December 2024 – currently, 12 telecommunications operators can provide services to residents: Orange, Play, GFX Labs, Ilios-System, FIBER OPTIC NETWORKS, BATEX, ClimaxNet, RFC Internet, IBS Electronics, NETGATE, Euler-Soft and 4Net.

Tauron is gradually expanding its reach to other areas, and the number of service providers operating on the network will grow. Currently, there are more than 151,000 within the range of Tauron’s fibre in three provinces – Silesia, Lower Silesia and Lesser Poland. After the completion of the infrastructure construction within the KPO, Tauron said it will cover over 32,000 new premises.

The maximum available bandwidth in a household is currently 1000 Mbps but the operator said that with the development of the network, the throughputs will increase. 

CEO steps down as Nokia looks to AI, US and data centres for growth

Annie Turner
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CEO steps down as Nokia looks to AI, US and data centres for growth

Lundmark will be replaced by Justin Hotard who currently heads up the Data Centre & AI Group at Intel. Hmmm

Nokia’s CEO Pekka Lundmark (pictured above) is to step down and will be replaced by Justin Hotard, who is currently EVP and GM of the Data Centre & AI Group at Intel, on 1 April. Lundmark was appointed in 2020 to turn the company round but Nokia’s share price and revenue have remained stagnant for pretty much a decade. Lundmark will remain at the company until the end of this year in an advisory role. The shift towards the US markets, AI and data centres was flagged last October.

Hotard has more than 25 years’ experience with global technology companies. Prior to his current job, he held senior roles at technology companies, including Hewlett Packard Enterprise and NCR Corporation. He will be based at Nokia’s headquarters in Espoo, Finland.

Super cycles and transitions

Hotard described the market as being “at the start of a super cycle with AI,” and compared it to the the rise of the internet as a public communications medium 20 years ago. He added that “these major market transitions” give birth to new organisations and incumbents must reinvent themselves or fail. He added, “My focus will be to accelerate the transformation journey”.

The trouble is, Intel could be described as just such an incumbent that has failed, spectacularly, to make the transition to the era of AI and data centres. Its CEO, Pat Gelsinger, was obliged to leave as his turnaround plan was judged too expensive and slow.

When probed on his strategy, Hotard explained that networking is second only to compute hardware regarding levels of investment in AI data centres and views Nokia’s ongoing $2.3 billion purchase of optical vendor Infinera, announced last June, as key. It is due to complete in the first half of this year.

At the time the acquisition was announced, Infinera’s CEO, David Heard, stated, “We believe Nokia is an excellent partner and together we will have greater scale and deeper resources to set the pace of innovation and address rapidly changing customer needs at a time when optics are more important than ever – across telecom networks, inter-data centre applications, and now inside the data centre. This combination will further leverage our vertically integrated optical semiconductor technologies.”

End of the exec line for Lundmark

Maybe the only thing that is surprising about the end of Lundmark’s tenure is how long it lasted after Ericsson landed the 5G contract with AT&T in December 2023, worth up to €14 billion over five years, displacing Nokia. According to this morning’s press conference, it seems Lundmark indicated his desire to move away from executive roles in spring 2024. However, when the Financial Times [subscription needed] reported a change of leadership was in the pipeline “to revive falling sales” last September, Nokia flatly denied it.

Today Lundmark said in a statement, “This is the right time for me to move on. I have led listed companies for more than two decades and although I do not plan to stop working, I want to move on from executive roles to work in a different capacity, such as a board professional. Justin is a great choice for Nokia and I look forward to working with him on a smooth transition.”

Sari Baldauf, Chair of Nokia’s Board of Directors, announced the change and commented, “I am delighted to welcome Justin to Nokia. He has a strong track record of accelerating growth in technology companies along with vast expertise in AI and data centre markets, which are critical areas for Nokia’s future growth. In his previous positions, and throughout the selection process, he has demonstrated the strategic insight, vision, leadership and value creation mindset required for a CEO of Nokia”.

Time will tell.

Proximus’ CEO joins Vodafone Group as CEO of Strategy & Investment

Annie Turner
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Proximus’ CEO joins Vodafone Group as CEO of Strategy & Investment

Guillaume Boutin will take up the post in mid-May having spent seven years at the Belgian operator group

Guillaume Boutin, CEO of Belgium’s Proximus Group, will join Vodafone Group in mid-May as its CEO Vodafone Investments & Strategy. He will also become member of Vodafone Group’s executive committee. Proximus said its board is starting a search for his successor.

Boutin joined Proximus as Chief Marketing Officer, Consumer in August 2017, before becoming CEO in December 2019. His tenure as CEO saw accelerated fibre and 5G roll-out in Belgium. His leadership also paved the way to collaborative agreements with peers to limit duplication of fibre networks and devised and executed the the bold2025 strategy to drive domestic growth and international expansion.

According to Proximus’ press release, Boutin and his “leadership squad he transformed Proximus into the leading Belgian operator in terms of growth and commercial results and achieved significant milestones, such as the creation of Proximus NXT and the launch of Proximus Global, one of the worldwide leaders in Digital Communications”.

Vodafone Investments

Boutin will succeed Serpil Timuray who joined Vodafone Group was as CEO of Turkey in January 2009. Since then she has held a variety of senior roles, and been a member of the group executive since committee since 2013. She has decided to leave Vodafone at the end of June after more than 16 years “to pursue external opportunities”.

Vodafone Investments was established in 2024 to combine Vodafone’s “non-controlled investments” in telecoms operators, infrastructure assets, sector innovators and the Partner Markets division. The latter provides services to other telecoms operators in 45 countries and Proximus Group has participated in the Partner Market since 2003.

Margherita Della Valle, Vodafone Group CEO, said, “I am delighted that Guillaume is joining us to lead Vodafone Investments & Strategy for the Group. He has a strong mix of strategic, operational and leadership experience, combined with deep-rooted sector knowledge. His appointment is a great addition to our executive team and will also benefit our telecoms partners around the world. I also want to thank Serpil for her tireless commitment and significant contribution to Vodafone over the last 15 years.”

Boutin said of joining Vodafone, “I’m excited to be joining Vodafone at such an important time in the Group’s transformation. I see significant opportunities to create value through its investments in operators, infrastructure and innovation.”

Leaving Proximus

About leaving Proximus he commented, “”Proximus is well-prepared for the future and can count on strong foundations and incredible talents. Major transformations have been initiated in the last years and the management, together with their teams, will further execute them with the same drive. I am convinced that the current management team will deliver on all our ambitions and make the right decisions moving forward. I’m dedicated to contributing to Proximus’ successes until my last day in the company and wish all teams a great future within this wonderful company.”

Stefaan De Clerck Chairman of the Proximus Board, appointed by the Belgian State said, “I’m proud of the way he led the organization and of his strategic contributions that will shape the future of the company…In his role of CEO, his leadership and strong execution of the strategic transformation program repositioned Proximus successfully for long-term profitable growth on the domestic as well as international markets and ensured the roll-out of both mobile and fixed networks of the future…The Board wishes Guillaume all the best in his new role and explicitly wants to thank him for everything he brought to the Proximus Group.”

Boutin began his career in a web start-up, then joined France’s SFR in 2003 where he held various positions in strategy, finance and marketing, until he Joined Canal+ Group in 2015 as Chief Marketing Officer.

Vodafone Business expands IoT footprint in Saudi with Mobily

Annie Turner
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Vodafone Business expands IoT footprint in Saudi with Mobily

The operator says the partnership will give its IoT customers better connectivity in the Middle East and beyond

Vodafone Business IoT is partnering Mobily, a leading Saudi technology, media, and telecoms company, to offer IoT connectivity services in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. As a result, Vodafone Business IoT’s customers will be able to deploy IoT devices to more places in the Middle East. 

Through the agreement Mobily will grant Vodafone Business IoT’s customers access to its national network. This means that IoT customers installing and operating connected devices using the Vodafone Global SIM+ will have reliable and secure connectivity that complies with local regulatory requirements.

Vodafone Business says its IoT customers who use its Global SIM+ eSIM offer can take advantage of cross-border connectivity, making it easier and more efficient for them to connect their devices globally. 

In short, the collaboration with Mobily is intended to leverage Vodafone’s IoT expertise and Mobily’s network capabilities for customers and partners globally.

Erik Brenneis, CEO of Vodafone Business IoT, said, “This partnership with Mobily…expands our footprint in the Middle East, and enables us to provide managed IoT connectivity services to customers in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

“This agreement means we can now provide reliable, secure and compliant cross-border IoT connectivity to businesses looking to operate in the country. We look forward to hyperscaling our managed IoT connectivity service – where we connect more customers in more countries.”

Eng. Salman Al-Badran, CEO of Mobily, said: “At Mobily, we continue to lead digital transformation in the region through our investment in advanced IoT technologies, opening up new opportunities and driving sustainable growth. This agreement will enable us to deliver advanced technologies solutions to both government and private sector clients, contributing to enhanced operational efficiency and creating promising investment opportunities.”

Iliad to invest €3bn in AI infrastructure, launches AI assistant

Simon Dux
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Iliad to invest €3bn in AI infrastructure, launches AI assistant


Busy week for the French telecoms group as it is also talking to Italian government about a possible tie up with Telecom Italia

The Iliad Group has announced plans to invest €3 billion in AI Ahead of the AI Action Summit which opens today in Paris. The plans are not new – they were revealed in December when Iliad said it was partnering private equity firm InfraVia to turn OpCore into a major European hyperscale data centre platform. OpCore has a 20-year history of operating data centres to meet the needs of the Iliad Group, hyperscalers, techcos and large corporations. It has data centres in Paris, Marseille, Lyon and Poland.

Ignoring the fact that every good summit needs a good local announcement, the €3 bn figure announced on Friday is up from €2.5+ billion mentioned by CEO Thomas Reynaud (above) in December and comprises a couple more initiatives. The Group has allocated a total of €3 billion to invest in AI-dedicated infrastructure (from data centres and computing power), research and application layers.

OpCore – which operates the Group’s 13 data centres – will be investing €2.5 billion in AI-capable hyperscale data centres. Thanks to the partnership with InfraVia, OpCore will have several hundred megawatts of capacity in the short-term and the long-term aim is to build several gigawatts of capacity across Europe.

Through Scaleway – its B2B cloud provider subsidiary – the Group claims it has also invested in the largest AI compute capacity available in the commercial market in Europe. This means that almost 5,000 “top-tier” GPUs are offered to companies for them to train and use their models. Iliad points to Mistral AI, H and Photoroom as Scaleway users.

“Thanks to Scaleway, the best open-source models – Llama (Meta), Moshi (Kyutai), and now DeepSeek – are available for all companies in a sovereign and secure cloud environment,” the company said in a statement.

le Chat Pro

Iliad also announced it has teamed up with Mistral AI to become the country’s first telco to offer all of its mobile subscribers an AI assistant, with an exclusive 12 months’ free-of-charge offer for le Chat Pro – the new premium version of the AI assistant developed by Mistral AI. This means that Free’s 15.5 million subscribers will be able to use it at no extra cost.

Le Chat Pro will be offered for 12 months free of charge then €17.99/month incl. VAT (€14.99/month excl. VAT), on a no-contract basis; valid only for Free mobile subscribers (on a €2, Série Free or 5G Free Mobile plan), provided they have no current Mistral AI paying subscription, and provided they sign up for the le Chat Pro service via their Subscriber Area before 10 August 2025. The service available on compatible devices only (the app can be downloaded from the App Store and Google Play Store) and on the Mistral AI website.

Kyutai an independent lab dedicated to AI

Iliad’s nonprofit open-science AI research lab Kyutai has introduced Hibiki, an innovative simultaneous translation tool. Hibiki translates speech from French to English in real time, preserving the speaker’s voice and adjusting its pace to match the original speech’s semantic content. It provides both oral and written translations, with Iliad claiming it surpasses current standards in translation quality, voice fidelity, and naturalness. Designed for efficiency, Hibiki supports real-time, on-device usage.

This launch follows Kyutai’s July 2024 release of Moshi, an open-source AI model renowned for its exceptional voice capabilities. Kyutai was established in late 2023 and co-founded by the Iliad Group with an initial investment of €100 million.

“For several years now at the Iliad Group we’ve believed in the power of artificial intelligence, which is why we decided to devote the necessary resources to it,” said Reynaud. “We’re investing €3 billion across the entire value chain – from data centres to computing power and open-science research, and we’re democratising AI through our partnership with Mistral. The reason we’ve taken so many initiatives over the past three years is because we know that it’s a decisive time, when our society’s future is being played out.”

Italian job

According to Reuters Iliad has been in touch with the Italian government around a potential deal with Telecom Italia, according to sources. They are not the only ones either as CVC Capital Partners is also seeking some for of deal and has been in touch. Reynaud informed Finance Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti and other top government officials this week that the telecoms group is studying a tie-up between its Italian business and TIM.

CVC has its eyes on Vivendi’s 24% stake in the Italian incumbent. The government has ‘golden powers’ to vet any stake purchase bigger than 3%.

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