European telecom roundup: AI-RAN, sovereign LEO and Telia

By Rebecca Stone

Sweden's Telia raised its full-year EBITDA growth outlook from around 3% to 3-4%, after like-for-like third-quarter adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization) rose 2.9% year on year to SEK8.87 billion ($890 million). Revenue increased 4.5% to SEK21.30 billion ($2.14 billion).

CEO Patrik Hofbauer described the results as "somewhat better than anticipated," attributing the surprise to "solid service revenue growth and lower operational expenses." Earlier in the month, Telia announced plans to cut around 900 jobs by year-end through a "localization" drive targeting SEK1 billion ($100 million) in annual gross savings.

What does Telia’s commercial result show?

The raised outlook and cost program point in the same direction: Telia pairs service growth and lower operating costs with a plan to remove 900 positions. The announcement does not break down which part of the SEK1 billion savings comes from those jobs, nor whether the quarter's revenue growth reflects price, volume or mix.

What does the Ukrainian satellite plan actually commit?

Nokia and Finnish satellite company Iceye signed a letter of intent with the Ukrainian military to develop "sovereign" satellite connectivity that Ukraine's armed forces can rely on. The letter does not disclose a procurement award, contract value, deployment date, capacity or control arrangements.

Iceye claims it owns what it calls the world's largest and most advanced synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite constellation, but the announcement offers no independent benchmark for that comparison. Earlier this month, Nokia and Iceye announced a partnership to develop secure, sovereign low-Earth-orbit communications systems for governments.

The initiative was announced amid scrutiny of Donald Trump's and Elon Musk's influence over Starlink, while the stated commercial rationale is to let nations own and control satellites rather than depend on privately controlled networks.

A letter of intent leaves the test unresolved: military users still need specified service availability, security arrangements and a procurement schedule before they can judge whether the system is sovereign in practice.

What has T-Mobile demonstrated?

T-Mobile has made what it called the first AI-RAN call with Nokia and Nvidia, alongside reported performance gains from Ericsson's AI beamforming. The announcement does not identify the operating market, radio generation, baseline, measured improvement or commercial deployment date.

The call establishes a test milestone, but it does not support conclusions about production performance. Ericsson-related gains also lack the figures needed to compare the two vendors' approaches.

What would the UK cable rules change?

Against growing threats to critical undersea infrastructure from sovereign states, the UK government proposes lengthy prison sentences and unlimited fines for people deliberately damaging subsea cables and pipelines carrying data, electricity and gas.

Subsea telecom companies would also face new security and resilience obligations, including stricter processes for identifying and managing network risks. No maximum sentence, fine mechanism, implementation date or compliance timetable appears in the proposal.

How much does Sunrise’s workforce plan now involve?

Swiss operator Sunrise has finished consulting on a proposed restructuring and reduced the number of redundancies involved from 450 to 358. That is 92 fewer positions, or about one-fifth below its initial proposal.

Sunrise calls the accompanying package a "strong social plan" and says expanded benefits focus particularly on older employees. No job-cut timetable or total savings figure accompanies the update.

What does Telefónica’s quantum computer add?

In January 2025, Telefónica signed a collaboration agreement with IBM to develop security technology robust enough to withstand the potential threat from future quantum computers powerful enough to crack current cryptography. It has now partnered with IQM Quantum Computers to install an IQM Spark at the Technical University of Madrid before year-end.

This adds a research machine to the operator's quantum-security work, not a commercial quantum network. The announcement gives no access schedule, qubit count, performance target or customer service built on the computer.

How will fiber detect water leaks?

Portsmouth Water and Lightsonic will roll out leak detection across part of Portsmouth Water's network using Openreach fiber infrastructure. Fiber-optic cables running alongside water pipes will pick up the sound of leaks, while distributed acoustic sensing turns the existing fiber into a continuous sensing network.

The aim is to identify and repair leaks faster as winter approaches. Neither the rollout length, number of sensing points, expected reduction in water loss nor rollout end date is disclosed, so the operational benefits remain unquantified.

What can BT’s self-powering site prove?

BT has switched on its first "self-powering" mobile site. The operator says on-site solar panels and a wind turbine generate around 70% of the site's energy needs, leaving the installation short of fully self-powered operation.

BT provides no site location, generation capacity, battery provision, uptime record or cost saving. One operating site demonstrates field operation, but it does not show that the same energy ratio will hold across a wider mobile network.

The next checkpoints are year-end installation of Telefónica's IQM Spark, UK decisions and timetables on subsea-cable penalties, and operating data from T-Mobile, Portsmouth Water and BT; Nokia and Iceye still need a defined deployment behind their Ukrainian military letter of intent.