They have been vetted for quality, consistency, and stability through rigorous release management processes, the Linux Foundation says
The Linux Foundation’s CAMARA project, “the open source community addressing telco industry API interoperability”, announced its second official release, Meta-release Spring25. It contains 13 new and 23 updated APIs, making 36 in total that have been vetted for quality, consistency and stability.
These APIs are included in the Meta-release:
Stable CAMARA APIs for Device Reachability Status, Device Roaming Status, Location Verification, Number Verification, One-time Password SMS, QoS Profiles, Quality On Demand, and SIM Swap.
Updated Versions of existing CAMARA APIs for Applications Profiles, Call Forwarding Signal, Carrier Billing, Carrier Billing Refund, Connectivity Insights, KYC Fill-In, KYC Match, Location Retrieval, Population Density Data, QoD Provisioning, and the updated versions of APIs to subscribe for event notifications: Connectivity Insights Subscriptions, Device Reachability Status Subscriptions, Device Roaming Status Subscriptions, Geofencing Subscriptions, SIM Swap Subscriptions
Initial versions of new CAMARA APIs, ready to be implemented by network operators for Blockchain Public Address, Connected Network Type (including Subscriptions), Customer Insights, Device Identifier, Device Swap, Know Your Customer Age Verification, Know Your Customer Tenure, Number Recycling, Region Device Count, WebRTC Call Handling, WebRTC Events and WebRTC Registration.
Guidelines
Meta-release Spring25 also includes updated CAMARA design guidelines with improvements to notifications, events and error responses. These changes have been applied by all APIs in the release. The Security and Interoperability Profile has also been revised to make it clearer and with more options for API providers to offer “secure, privacy-friendly and seamless access for developers to network information and capabilities”.
The APIs are organised in 19 different repositories, nine of which were recently promoted by the Technical Steering Committee (TSC) to the “Incubated” stage: Call Forwarding Signal, Device Location, Device Status, Simple Edge Discovery, Number Verification, OTP Validation, Sim Swap, Know YourCustomer, Quality On Demand
Beyond the 10 Sandbox repositories which participated in the meta-release, there are 24 more Sandbox API repositories which is where work on the next wave of CAMARA APIs is underway.
“The Spring25 Meta-Release marks a…milestone in CAMARA’s mission to drive open, standardized APIs for the global telecom industry,” said Arpit Joshipura, general manager, Networking, Edge and IoT at the Linux Foundation. “We’re continuing to see broad ecosystem support for CAMARA and its innovative APIs that empower developers, accelerate service innovation, and strengthen the ecosystem of open collaboration that is vital for the future of connectivity.”
Nathan Rader, CAMARA Governing Board Chair and VP, Service and Capability Exposure, Deutsche Telekom. “The availability of even more mature, stable telco APIs expands the possibilities for developers and organizations to harness this work more effectively, driving new opportunities across the ecosystem. We look forward to seeing how the industry leverages these enhancements to deliver next-generation services and experiences.”
CAMARA’s background
CAMARA was initiated in 2021 by a group of telcos, vendors and hyperscalers, then officially launched in February 2022 with 22 partners. It graduated to a funded model in September 2023, with 250 participating organisations and over 750 contributors. Since then, the project has grown to more than 1,250 contributors from 427 organisations. It has 11 API sub-projects, 21 sandbox projects, 60 APIs and five working groups. The project says its growth rate indicates “strong ecosystem support in enabling more accessible and standardized open telco APIs”.
The community is committed to delivering updates twice a year to vetted APIs so network operators can plan deployments within their networks
The UK edge DC company continues to expand its footprint with the acquisition of SCC data centres in Birmingham and Fareham
Despite all of the focus remaining on the hyperscalers, data sovereignty and AI inference have brought back into focus the much maligned area of mobile edge compute and how this market demand may evolve, creating potential new network edge opportunities.
Some argue that the shift to AI-based applications will change the central versus edge demand pattern for compute. But the industry does risk repeating the some mobile edge pitfalls where the dream of edge servers delivering all manner of enterprise apps didn’t really happen for telcos. However,, smaller more regional data centres do present some opportunities around edge compute and this is where Pulsant is looking to make its mark.
Bu acquiring two data centres from European technology solutions and services provider SCC, Pulsant reckons the investment will strengthen its platformEDGE offering now that it has 12 data centres across the UK.
The carve out deal will include SCC’s Birmingham and Fareham data centres, as well as the transfer of a roster of colocation-only clients to Pulsant. In addition, the companies will form a new strategic partnership for critical colocation services across the UK, which includes access to Pulsant’s national network of data centres for all SCC clients.
Based in Birmingham, the Cole Valley data centre benefits from a central UK location. It has a power capacity of around 2MW with potential for expansion. Meanwhile, the Fareham data centre is a modern carrier-neutral facility, with a mix of corporate and service provider colocation customers with a slightly higher power capacity of around 3 MW. Both sites offer 25,000 sq ft of data centre white space.
Since 2021 when it was acquired by Antin Infrastructure Partners, Pulsant has had a history of acquiring and integrating regional data centres to expand its coverage and capabilities, and it reckons the the SCC investment will further strengthen its presence in the UK market. SCC acquired SSE Enterprise Telecoms’ Hampshire Data Centre in 2014, taking its total investment in data centres to more than £50 million.
Economic hubs
“With the addition of two new data centres, we’ve expanded our UK coverage, strengthening our presence near key economic hubs that have traditionally been underserved in terms of digital infrastructure – particularly Birmingham, the UK’s second city,” said Pulsant CEO Rob Coupland.
“This will enable more businesses to benefit from Pulsant’s unique network of data centres and platformEDGE to reach new markets and grow their organisations. We’re excited to welcome and support the high-quality client base transitioning to Pulsant and look forward to fostering their continued growth,” he said. “SCC has an outstanding reputation, and we’re delighted to partner with them to support clients with their future colocation requirements. We are also excited to welcome the new team members, working together to deliver high availability services.”
“SCC has been carefully reviewing options for the future of our data centres for some time. A clear priority was to find a specialist partner that will continue to invest in and operate these facilities for the long-term and with whom we can build a strategic relationship for the provision of these services to our clients,” said SCC co-CEO James Rigby. “Ensuring continuity for our customers, opportunities for our people, and a future-proofed infrastructure was critical in our decision.”
He added: “Our role in helping customers manage a range of hybrid workloads for optimum cost and performance remains a core value proposition and driver of our growth. We are delighted that this transaction further allows us to invest in our managed service hybrid offerings and to create a new and valued partnership with Pulsant for critical colocation services.”
The data centre engineers and operational team members from both locations will be transferred to Pulsant on completion of the deal, expected in April 2025.
French media conglomerate sells most of its remaining stake to state-backed Poste – a fraction of the €4bn it invested in TIM over an eight year period
The French multimedia group Vivendi announced it has signed an agreement with Poste Italiane for the sale of 15.00% of TIM’s ordinary shares and voting rights for a total consideration of €684 million. The transaction will be complete after Vivendi’s notification to the Italian competition authority.
Post Italiane will replace the French congomeragte as the main investor in the operator group with a 24.8% holding. It acquired a 9.8% stake from state lender Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP) in a move supported by the Prime Minister’s office in February. CDP owns more than two-thirds of Poste.
Having recently reduced its holding to 18.4% from 23.8%, after the transaction, it will keep a minority interest, about 2.51% of ordinary shares and voting rights, in the Italian telecoms operator, and 1.80% of its share capital.
Disappointed investor
Vivendi has been unhappy with its investment in the Telecom Italia group for years and objected to KKR being allowed to buy a controlling share in the the fixed line NetCo, FiberCop, that was spun out of the organisation at the end of 2023. It is the only large network operator in Europe to have taken this step.
Vivendi first invested in the Telecom Italia group (TIM) in 2015 as part of a strategy to French tycoon Vincent Bollore’s goal of creating a media empire in southern European. Overall, the French media conglomerate invested €4 billion for its stake in the Italian operator over eight years.
During that time has had to write down the value of its investments as Telecom Italia’s shares have fallen, debt and competition have risen, and the board room has been beset by conflict and a succession of new management and strategies. (Bollore’s aggressive stake-building in the Italian broadcaster Mediaset didn’t go to plan, either.)
In the meantime, TIM’s boardroom battles raged for years. The KKR deal only went through after a long, tortuous process with many twists and turns, with the backing of the government. Vivendi continued to argue that the business and assets had been undervalued in the sale to KKR for about €22 billion (there are cash-out clauses and Vivendi wanted €30 billion) but now, according to Reuters, the French enterprise will drop its legal challenge against the sale.
Will peace break out in the boardroom?
It’s hard to say. Certainly Vivendi has made its presence felt in the boardroom, mostly in opposition, but there may be a different kind of conflict brewing. In Feburary, the Financial Times reported that FiberCop’s management predicted a shortfall in earnings of €449 million, putting prospective dividends in doubt.
As a result, in what the FT described as “an explosive board meeting, FiberCop’s CEO, Luigi Ferraris, quit. Apparently major investors would not accept that their projected billions of euros in dividend payments over the next five years would either have to be cut or the company would have to raise more public debt and risk a ratings downgrade.
Apparently, the main reason for the immediate shortfall was that more customers than expected had cancelled their fixed line subs. The management reportedly also said it expected a €2 billion EBIDTA shortfall over the next five years compared with KKR’s business plan.
This is not a good look for other investors who had come in with KKR – the Adu Dhabi Investment Authority, the Canadian pension fund CPP Investments, the Italian fund F2i and the Italian Treasury.
KKR is insisting that the new CEO, Massimo Sarmi, who was appointed to the board last year by the Italian Treasury, must seek approval from one of two specified KKR executives before making any significant decisions – according to an internal memo the FT says it has seen. Some costs are on hold and the revised 2025 budget is not likely to be ready before summer.
The operator says increased uplink, as well as downlink, speeds are important as Finns upload more and more data – services for remote workers and companies to follow in the spring
Elisa’s customers are the first consumers in the world to use 5.5G (aka 5G Advanced) for their home internet connections after the operator launched its 5.5G network in the Helsinki area at the end of February. The new technology will next be deployed shortly for phone subscriptions and corporate use.
The operator notes that Finns are uploading more and more data to the network, and the new network will increase data upload speeds several times over and improve download speeds. In the past, download speed has been the starting point for network development, but use of social media, cloud services and AI tools have massively increased uploaded traffic volumes.
“One significant driver for 5.5G is the increase in use of AI, which has increased the amount of upstream data transfer in the network. It’s important that in Finland, we can be the first to learn about the features of new technologies and bring their benefits to our customers”, explains Kalle Lehtinen, CTO at Elisa.
Laura Soikkeli, Head of Elisa’s Home Connections business, states, “For ordinary internet users, this is the most significant development step since 5G first arrived.
“Customers really notice the difference when they work from home: 5.5G connections mean improvements in video meeting performance and large file transfers. Smart home devices are also more reliable, and we may see developments such as services that support older people in remaining in their own homes.”
Progressive roll-out
Availability of the 5.5G network and subscriptions will be extended in phases. Initially, the network is available in the area around Finland’s capital, plus Tampere and Jyväskylä. In parallel, the range of services supported by 5.5G will expand.
In spring, Elisa will launch 5.5G phone subscriptions and services for corporate offices and remote working: 5.5G requires a 5.5G subscription and a compatible phone or router. The choice of 5.5G-compatible devices is also set to grow in the coming years.
Long Finnish 5Gpedigree
Elisa opened the world’s first commercial 5G network and sold the Nordics’ first 5G customer phone in 2019. The 5G network enabled download speeds of up to 1 Gbit/s.
At the start of 2024, Elisa was the first to offer Finnish customers 5G standalone phone subscriptions (5G+) and home internet (Omakaists).
Elisa launched the first part of its 5.5G network at the end of Feburary, bringing this new technology to Finnish home and corporate internet connections as well as phone subscriptions. Upload speeds are several times faster over 5.5G than with previous technologies
Finnish vendor also signs patent agreement with Amazon for video technologies, ending all pertinent litigation in all territories
First up, Vodafone Idea Limited (VIL) has chosen Nokia to upgrade and expand its optical transport network across some metro and circle locations in India. The upgrade will use Nokia’s optical switching technology to increase capacity for 4G’s growing data traffic. It will also improve flexibility and efficiency, the vendor says, and “boost VIL’s 5G rollout”.
Late starter
VIL launched 5G earlier this month in Mumbai, and will expand coverage to five more major cities. The struggling operator said that it has sufficient capital to cover 100 cities and towns across 17 circles over the next three years, and hopes 5G services will help reduce churn.
Market leaders, Reliance Jio Infocomm and Bharti Airtel, said they had 170 million and 120 million 5G customers respectively at the end of December, both having launched 5G services in October 2022.
The network overhaul includes deployment of Nokia’s 1830 Photonic Service Switch (PSS) platform, and CDC-F 2.0 wavelength switching technologies. In addition, Nokia will also implement its photonic service engine (PSE-Vs) optics, iDense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) and optical transport network (OTN) to ensure connectivity even in peak times.
Avoiding forklift changes
Nokia says its solution will enable VIL to scale its network from C-band to C+L band as required, avoiding “forklift changes in platform or architecture,” thereby “reducing operational costs”. The project will also help cut energy consumption.
“We have been a long-standing partner for [VIL] in India, built on our trusted performance in network infrastructure. Our cutting-edge 1830 PSS technology will ensure their readiness to deliver multi-terabit data growth and support upcoming quantum-safe services for their enterprise customers,” said Sang Xulei, VP and Head of Network Infrastructure at Nokia Asia Pacific.
“This…milestone with VIL…cements Nokia’s leadership in India’s optical transport market and commitment to enabling next-generation connectivity in India,” he added.
Patent agreement with Amazon
Nokia has also announced it has signed a patent agreement with Amazon covering the use of Nokia’s video technologies in Amazon’s streaming services and devices. The agreement resolves all patent litigation between the two, in all jurisdictions. The terms – including the financial terms – of the agreement are not being made public.
“We are pleased to have reached agreement on the use of Nokia’s video technologies in Amazon’s streaming services and devices,” said Arvin Patel, Chief Licensing Officer New Segments, at Nokia.
Nokia claims to be a leader in the development of video and multimedia technologies, including video compression, content delivery, content recommendation and aspects related to hardware. In the past 25 years, the vendor has created almost 5,000 inventions that enable multimedia products and services and continues “to play a leading role in multimedia research and standardization”.
Nokia adds that is has invested more than €150 billion in R&D since 2000, including over €4.5 billion in 2024 alone in technologies including cellular and multimedia.
Both are internal promotions from within the Orange Group
Aliette Mousnier-Lompré, CEO of Orange Business (pictured), has announced two appointments to the executive management team.
Wassila Zitoune-Dumontet will be CEO of Orange Business France from 1 April. She was previously Chief Operating Officer at Orange Business, responsible for procurement, operations and customer service. According to the press statement, “Her commitment to customers, employees and technological innovation has helped develop a culture of operational excellence that has a positive impact on financial value creation, as well as sustainability and social responsibility objectives”.
Previously, Zitoune-Dumontet was Chief Marketing and Digital Officer at Orange Business and Chief Commercial Officer at Orange Jordan and Morocco. She will retain her role as Diversity and Inclusion Sponsor for Orange Business, a position she has held for several years “with dedication and enthusiasm”.
MireilleHelou will step into Zitoune-Dumontet’s shoes as the new Chief Operating Officer for Orange Business, starting on 1 April. Helou has held “various leadership positions” since joining Orange Group in 2001. This includes oversseing digital transformation at Orange Réunion & Mayotte, improving business operations in Kenya and leading strategic market observation at Orange Silicon Valley.
Most recently, as SVP for MENA Zone at Orange, she strengthened regional development and governance.
“I am delighted to welcome Wassila and Mireille in their new roles. With their extensive industry experience, leadership, and customer focus, they will play a key role in shaping the future of Orange Business, empowering our customers with the strategic advantage they need to thrive in today’s fast-evolving digital landscape,” stated Aliette Mousnier-Lompré, CEO, Orange Business.
Partner content: In a digital landscape, AI-driven automation is essential for maintaining competitiveness and operational efficiency
AI ecosystems are intricate networks of algorithms, data, and technologies that drive intelligent decision-making and automation. As businesses increasingly leverage AI and Generative AI to optimise processes, enhance productivity, and foster innovation, scaling these solutions presents challenges and requires alignment with real-world needs.
Driving efficiency and innovation in the digital era
In today’s fast-paced environment, businesses face a huge amount of pressure to achieve greater efficiency while staying competitive in an ever-evolving market. To meet these challenges, organisations are increasingly turning to AI-driven solutions to optimise their operations. Leveraging cutting-edge technologies such as AI and Generative AI, businesses can transform their processes – automating repetitive tasks, integrating insights from diverse data formats, and streamlining workflows.
These solutions go beyond mere automation; they focus on solving business challenges. By reducing operational complexities and enhancing productivity, companies can allocate their resources more strategically. Whether it’s accelerating the development of new offerings, reducing errors in routine operations, or improving responsiveness to market demands, AI-powered strategies enable businesses to remain agile and future-ready.
These solutions can go from Competitive Intelligence capabilities, made to help marketeers identifying competitor offers by automatically crawling commercial offers and campaigns from the website and social networks; to Claims Automation capabilities, to optimise the claims analysis phase, reducing time and effort in claims processing.
Ultimately, this approach allows organisations to innovate faster, respond smarter, and thrive in a data-driven economy.
Below are some key benefits of AI-driven solutions:
Enhanced Productivity – AI automates repetitive tasks, allowing employees to focus on higher-value activities that drive innovation and growth.
Operational Cost Reduction – by streamlining workflows and reducing manual interventions, AI helps lower operational expenses and improve cost efficiency.
Data-Driven Decision Making – AI-powered insights help businesses make informed decisions faster, leveraging diverse data formats for deeper analysis and strategic planning.
Improved Accuracy and Reduced Errors – automating tasks minimises human errors, ensuring greater precision in processes such as data entry, claims processing, and compliance management.
Faster Innovation and Adaptability – AI enables businesses to quickly implement new use cases and respond to market changes with agility, maintaining a competitive edge.
Scalability and Flexibility – AI solutions can scale with business needs, seamlessly adapting to growing demands without compromising efficiency.
Enhanced Customer Experience – AI-driven automation improves response times, personalises customer interactions, and enhances overall service quality.
(Gen) AI & AI Challenges
The rapid adoption of AI and Generative AI technologies has created transformative opportunities for businesses to enhance their efficiency and achieve new levels of innovation. However, while the potential is immense, many organisations struggle to realise tangible value from their investments in AI. The challenge lies not only in deploying AI solutions but also in ensuring that these tools deliver measurable business outcomes, scale effectively, and align with strategic objectives.
As companies explore AI’s potential, they face questions about profitability, reliability, and scalability. Many enterprises find themselves navigating obstacles such as high implementation costs, fragmented processes, data availability, and uncertainty about AI’s integration into their operational workflows. Addressing these challenges is critical for turning AI from a high-cost experimental tool into a driver of business value.
Today, the challenges associated with AI Business Efficiency can be summarised in one question: Is my organisation ready to scale AI and Generative AI to deliver measurable business value?
Common Business Leader’s Questions:
How can we ensure that Generative AI solutions generate tangible business value and are not just experimental projects?
What are the main barriers to scaling Generative AI across enterprise environments, and how do we overcome them?
How can we ensure the reliability, consistency, and accuracy of AI-generated outputs, particularly in critical business use cases?
How do we align AI initiatives with our organisation’s strategic goals, while keeping implementation costs and risks under control?
Addressing these questions requires a thoughtful strategy to optimise AI implementation, focusing on scalability, governance, and alignment with business outcomes to ensure Generative AI becomes a reliable engine for enterprise efficiency and growth.
Strategic AI Deployment: Celfocus’s Approach
Celfocus aims to empower organisations by leveraging AI and Generative AI to transform business operations, ensuring these technologies are strategically deployed to drive measurable value. Our approach is focused on understanding the unique challenges and opportunities within each business, starting with an assessment of whether there is a clear business case for utilising AI and Generative AI capabilities.
AI use cases can be categorised into three main domains to address specific business needs:
Customer Experience – redefining customer engagement through personalised, AI-driven interactions that enhance satisfaction and loyalty.
Process Efficiency – streamlining operational processes by automating repetitive tasks, optimising workflows, and reducing costs.
Marketing & Sales – boosting sales productivity by enabling smarter targeting, forecasting, and campaign management through AI-driven insights.
By following a composable architecture approach, it is ensured that AI solutions are designed to meet the specific needs of each business case, emphasising scalability, agility, and cost optimisation. Celfocus supports its clients by integrating AI seamlessly into their existing processes, providing a foundation for reliable and scalable adoption.
Three Pillars of our AI Business Efficiency view:
Business Case Validation begins by identifying and validating the business case for AI use, ensuring clear alignment with organisational objectives and measurable outcomes.
Flexible Implementation depending on the use case domain, we help organisations adopt and integrate AI capabilities across their ecosystems, including designing AI models, automating processes, and implementing AI-driven systems tailored to business needs.
Governance and Reliability prioritises governance to ensure AI adoption is secure, ethical, and aligned with organisational goals.
Combining technology expertise with a deep understanding of business needs, it is ensured that AI and Generative AI become indispensable tools for driving efficiency, agility, and competitiveness in the modern enterprise. To achieve this, business leaders must focus on:
Assess and Validate AI Business Use Cases – collaborate with stakeholders to evaluate and prioritise AI opportunities, ensuring alignment with strategic objectives and measurable business value.
Develop Scalable AI Solutions – design and implement composable, cloud- or on-prem-based AI systems that integrate seamlessly into existing workflows, minimising complexity and maximising impact.
Automate and Optimise Processes – enhance operational efficiency by automating repetitive tasks, streamlining workflows, and enabling AI-driven decision-making across business domains.
Deliver AI-as-a-Service – develop mechanisms to expose and operationalise AI capabilities, such as APIs, automated decision systems, and pre-built models, for seamless integration into business processes.
Accelerate Cultural and Business Adoption – promote the adoption of AI capabilities through targeted strategies, fostering confidence and alignment with organisational goals.
Unlocking AI’s Full Potential: From Challenges to Business Growth
As AI and Generative AI continue to reshape the business landscape, organisations must take a strategic approach to harness their full potential. Beyond automation, AI serves as a catalyst for innovation, enabling businesses to streamline operations, improve decision-making, and enhance customer experiences. However, the true value of AI lies in its ability to deliver measurable business outcomes, scale efficiently, and align with long-term strategic goals.
By addressing common challenges – such as implementation complexity, scalability, and governance – organisations can transform AI from an experimental tool into a powerful driver of efficiency and growth. Celfocus’s AI Business Efficiency approach ensures that AI solutions are not only technically sound but also business-driven, providing a structured pathway for companies to optimise processes, maximise ROI, and maintain a competitive edge in an increasingly data-driven economy.
With the right framework in place, businesses can unlock AI’s full potential, turning challenges into opportunities and paving the way for smarter, more agile, and future-ready enterprises.
About the authors
Amélia Goulão is responsible for the Data & Analytics Cognitive Offer at Celfocus. She started her career as a Business Intelligence Consultant at Celfocus, participating mostly in Financial Services projects. In 2016, she left Celfocus and joined a Data Science team. From 2016 to 2024, she developed several projects, grew and managed the team. In 2024, she joined back Celfocus and is now leading Cognitve Offer at Data & Analytics Business Line, designing the best solutions to help Celfocus’s customers achieve the best results.
Amélia has a vast experience in Data Science, Data Engineering, and Marketing Automation fields. Besides her professional experience, she has a Degree and Master Degree in Information Management.
Gonçalo Cachola is a Manager at Celfocus Data & Analytics Business Line. He spent his career conceiving and delivering high-value transformative data solutions with a track record in Telco and Insurance industries.
Currently, Gonçalo leads the Offer Development activities for Data & Analytics solutions focusing on creating next-generation analytics platforms to provide relevant insights and recommendations, covering both analytical and operational use cases.
Gonçalo is passionate about analysing and defining how businesses can operate, engage and support their customers using data-driven approaches.
He has in-depth knowledge and experience in Data Engineering, Data Visualisation and Marketing Automation technologies, having a Master Degree in Biomedical Engineering and a Postgraduate degree in Digital Marketing & Analytics.
The network operator will target underserved areas and about 30 municipalities and cities across the country – the country’s fibre penetration is about 68%
The Finnish fibre and internet service provider Valoo has secured additional funds from NIBC Bank, SEB, the Nordic Investment Bank (NIB), LocalTapiola, ING, KfW IPEX-Bank and the BRIDGE platform and Islandsbanki hf.
The funds are to accelerate the rollout of Valoo’s network across Finland and brings Valoo’s total funding so far to almost €550 million. According to Traficom, at the end of September 2024, 68% of Finnish households had access to fibre broadband and 75% of households had access to a connection with a minimum download speed of 1 Gbps.
A funding round in 2024 combined with the current amount will enable Valoo to expand its footprint to more than 30 municipalities and cities across Finland. As well as passing “tens of thousands of households” with fibre, the work will create almost 1,000 jobs within the company and the wider market, the press statement claims.
Vote of confidence
Valoo’s CEO Vesa Kemppainen, says, “We are delighted that this latest funding round has been completed so quickly, allowing us to focus on our aim of bringing faster home fibre connections to more residential areas in the coming years. Coverage of state-of-the-art broadband remains a challenge in many underserved towns in Finland, holding back local economies – we aim to fix that.”
“Construction will resume across Finland as soon as the weather conditions allow. New orders are coming in continuously, so there is plenty of work to be done,” he Kemppainen adds. “Alongside construction, our operations as an internet operator are also growing. Our highly skilled teams are doing incredibly good work in all areas, bringing cost effective fiber-optic to households across the country.”
Valoo is owned by the global financial investor CVC DIF, the strategic infrastructure arm of the global private markets manager CVC, and TESI (Finnish Industry Investment).
Pullback apparently follows the tech giant’s decision not to take on additional training workloads for OpenAI, owner of ChatGPT in which Microsoft has invested almost $14bn
Reuters has reported that in the last six months Microsoft has abandoned plans to lease data centres in Europe and the US as they would be surplus to its demand forecast.
The news agency cited an analyst team at TD Cowen which suggested pulling back from the proposed leases followed Microsoft’s decision not to support additional training workloads from ChatGPT maker OpenAI. Microsoft has invested almost ¢14 billion in OpenAI by the end of 2024.
Supply chain analysts from investment bank TD Cowen said in February that Microsoft had scrapped leases totalling “a couple of hundred megawatts” of capacity with at least two private data centre operators.
In response to those comments by TD Cowen, Microsoft stated that although it could “strategically pace or adjust our infrastructure in some areas, we will continue to grow strongly in all regions”. It also said it still intends to spend $80 billion on AI infrastructure in this fiscal year.
Investors’ get cold feet
Investors are less ebullient about spending on AI as returns on investment have been slow and less than some expected. China’s DeepSeek also punctured investors’ confidence in the sector in January when it demo’d tech that seemed to rival that developed in Western countries at a fraction of the cost.
Now Reuters says that Microsoft’s retreat has resulted in Google stepping into the breach to provide more capacity in markets outside the US, while Meta Platforms is providing more in the US, according to TD Cowen’s supply chain checks.
Alphabet, which owns Google, has said it will spend $75 billion on its AI infrastructure this year, almost a third more (29%) more than Wall Street expected, while Meta has committed up to $65 billion.
Mobile Europe’s Michelle Donegan speaks with Rick Hamilton, CEO, Infovista on the evolution of the telco industry, monetising 5G, removing complexity, the potential of AI and automation, and how Infovista is working with partners and customers.
