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Intel and telcos left in virtual RAN limbo by rise of AI RAN
A multitude of general-purpose and specialist silicon options now confronts the world's 5G community, while Intel's future in telecom remains uncertain.
Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Ericsson launches AI labs; Europe's telcos keep up the competitiveness drumbeat; CMA finds fault with UK public cloud services market.
The world of AI may have entered a period of DeepSeek-inspired turmoil, but that hasn't stopped Telefónica's Tech unit from launching its own generative AI (GenAI) platform intended to help companies and not-for-profit organizations create customizable virtual assistants capable of solving complex problems, automating repetitive tasks and streamlining internal processes. Telefónica says the platform is "agnostic" in nature, able to work with different hyperscale technologies. It also allows connection through APIs, adapting to the differing needs of each company for the execution of particular actions or processes. The platform is designed to comply with European AI regulation and be governed by the specific laws or regulations of each country or region.
Ericsson is getting in on the AI act too, with the introduction of an AI research and development program it's calling Cognitive Labs. As befits the technology, the labs don't actually exist in real life – the program will operate virtually with participating boffins based in a few key locations including Madrid, Malaga and Cario. The program has three strands: GAI Lab, focusing on something called geometric AI; MLR Lab, dealing with machine learning and reasoning; and FAI Lab, focused on creating foundational AI models, such as large language models. (See Ericsson house of AI horrors provokes hope and fear.)
Connect Europe's latest report, State of Digital Communications 2025, reprises the lobby group's demands for EU action to secure the future of Europe's "connectivity value chain," pointing to what it calls the "fragmented and subscale nature" of Europe's telcos. It once again hails Mario Draghi's The Future of European Competitiveness report, published last year, as pointing the way forward for the sector. It also cites "heavy rules and lack of scalability" as drags on the ability of European telcos to compete with their less fettered rivals (as they see it) in other parts of the world. (See Europe just can't give up moaning about 5G in drivel from Draghi.)
The UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has found that competition in the public cloud services market is "not working as well as it could and that improvements could make cloud services markets work better for UK businesses in terms of improved prices, quality and choice." Specifically, it believes that Microsoft is using its "strength in software" to make it harder for AWS and Google to compete effectively. These are provisional findings: The CMA must now decide if AWS and Microsoft, as the two biggest players, need to designated as having strategic market status (SMS) in cloud services, which would allow the CMA to take things further.
AWS has already responded, saying in a statement that the "proposed intervention under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 (DMCCA) is not warranted … we urge the CMA to carefully consider how regulatory intervention in other areas will stifle innovation and ultimately harm customers in the UK." (See Cloud 'lock-in' for telcos won't end with futile UK investigation.)
A consortium led by Internet exchange operator DE-CIX has developed what it says is a secure and automated way of exchanging sensitive data between clouds. Project Tellus, as the consortium is called, integrates offerings from various providers based on the decentralized and distributed data infrastructure backed by non-profit association Gaia-X.
Three UK and Virgin Media O2 have teamed up with Swedish cloud communications platform Sinch to make RCS Business Messaging (RBM) available to their customers using iOS devices. Previously RBM was only available on Android. RBM, which is sort of like SMS texting with knobs on, offers businesses opportunities to engage with customers.
Slovenia's Kontron and systems integrator Mugler SE have combined to deploy a 5G network backbone at the Rosenheim Technical University of Applied Sciences in Germany. The network will be used for advanced research initiatives and immersive learning platforms.
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