Business Insights

Vodafone Group Plc (“Vodafone”) and CK Hutchison Group Telecom Holdings Limited (“CKHGT”), a wholly owned subsidiary of CK Hutchison Holdings Limited (“CK Hutchison”), are pleased to announce that the merger of Vodafone UK and Three UK successfully completed on 31 May 2025.

According to a recently published report from Dell’Oro Group, the trusted source for market information about the telecommunications, security, networks, and data center industries, the Optical Transport equipment market declined 1 percent year-over-year in 1Q 2025.

Juniper Networks and ServiceNow have integrated some tools for a joint network and service automation product which they say is the first of its kind.

New criteria to give certainty to world-class research organisations, helping to attract greater private investment and grow the UK economy.

O2 has upgraded its mobile network in and around Wembley Stadium ahead of a roster of big sports and music events.

More than 2.5 million people are apparently set to flock to the stadium this summer for events including the FA Cup final, seven Oasis shows and the Dua Lipa O2 Priority gig.

Signals Surging Momentum in Quantum Adoption Across Industries

Virgin Media O2 (VMO2) will combine its B2B arm with Daisy Group in a deal that might not go down too well with some of the latter's customers.

Under the agreement, Daisy will be consolidated into VMO2 Business, with each party respectively controlling 30% and 70% of the combined entity.

The cybersecurity industry is rushing to confront a new identity crisis — not for people, but for AI agents that act autonomously and now need to be managed like employees.

SK Telecom Co. may face losses of up to 7 trillion won (US$5 billion) over the next three years due to declining revenue and the possible waiving of early termination fees following a major data breach that has shaken consumer trust, the company's chief executive officer (CEO) said Thursday.

• Many major European telcos have been urging the region’s lawmakers to relax M&A and competition rules
• They claim that the only way Europe can compete is to allow companies to gain greater national and regional scale
• Now the EC has started a consultation process on its merger guid

• Together with Ericsson, Vodafone has introduced a new era of tunnel connectivity with the deployment of innovative multiband mobile radio antennas in the Arlinger Tunnel near Pforzheim, Germany
• This installation marks the first operational use of Ericsson’s advanced antenna technology from Ericsson Antenna S

Industry body Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA) did some Wi-Fi 7 trials in relation to enterprise applications and says it clocked increased throughput, lower latency, and enhanced efficiency for high-demand applications.

• Security breach and apparent data leak put SK Telecom into a tailspin
• But South Korea’s biggest mobile operator says it’s determined to right the ship, re-establish trust and be reborn as “faithful to the basics and responsible”
• Even if that means replacing up to 23 million SIM cards

• Toshiba Europe has announced a breakthrough in quantum communications over standard fibre-optic cable and at normal room temperature
• Simple chip technology replaces complex cryogenics to allow quantum communications over regular telecom infrastructure 
• It has also enabled the fi

• Nokia to support Maersk's next-generation IoT connectivity platform with new mobile network to enhance operational efficiency.
• Nokia supplied its private wireless network solution including Shikra small cell equipment and MantaRay NM for network management.

Nokia announced th

• The major hyperscalers have reported their first-quarter 2025 financials
• Synergy Research Group has collected all the data
• AI workloads have fuelled a 23% year-on-year increase in the value of the global cloud infrastructure services sector to almost $94bn

While

Hello, I’m Matthew Key, and I’ve worked in the telecoms sector for around 25 years. Previously, I worked at BT, where I gained a lot of contacts, and now I am an independent consultant, under the umbrella of Ideas Crucible. 

EU Commissioner visits London as UK researchers and businesses get access to more Horizon Europe funding calls for quantum and space research

Kit vendor Ericsson will inject €200 million over the next three years into its Athlone facility in central Ireland, in order to research open network management and automation capabilities for 5G.

The European Commission is putting its money where its mouth is when it comes to its clamp-down on US Big Tech.

It has just imposed fines on Apple and Meta of €500 million and €200 million respectively after they were found to have breached the Digital Markets Act (DMA).

Rakuten Mobile and AST SpaceMobile have announced the completion of what they say is the first-ever broadband video call between unmodified smartphones in Japan using a low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite.

Chip firm Intel and Arqit Quantum, which specialises in quantum-safe encryption, have launched a security solution in which even they “are outside the trust boundary.”

• India’s two main telcos, Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel, have built nationwide 5G networks
• As well as marketing 5G mobile packages, they have both been offering 5G fixed wireless access (FWA) broadband services
• Jio is currently dominating India’s 5G FWA sector with a near 85% market

Vodafone, Austria-based A1 and Ericsson have reached a new 5G standalone (SA) milestone that shines a light on the technical complexity of taking this technology across borders.