Virgin Media O2 nears Openreach fiber deal amid £22bn debt

By James Calloway

Virgin Media O2 is nearing a wholesale agreement with BT’s Openreach network to extend the UK converged operator’s fiber coverage into areas outside its own broadband network, the Financial Times reported. The potential deal has been prompted by concerns over VMO2’s £22 billion ($29.4 billion) debt.

People familiar with the matter said VMO2 was putting its plan to upgrade hybrid fiber-coaxial cable to fiber on hold.

What does the Openreach plan change for UK customers?

For VMO2, the immediate change would be access to BT’s wholesale fiber in places its own infrastructure does not reach, with the HFC-to-fiber upgrade plan paused while the talks continue. For customers, the benefit would be prospective fiber availability beyond VMO2’s present footprint once the final agreement takes effect.

O2 adds call-security technology

O2 has begun rolling out Hiya’s voice-call security technology to customers after what the operator described as a successful trial. Hiya uses AI-assisted algorithms to monitor the network for nuisance callers attempting fraud.

During testing, O2 said scammers repeatedly tried to reach the same customers several times, apparently unaware that the system blocked them. The company has now moved the tool from trial to customer deployment, without publishing trial volumes or a measured reduction in fraud.

Third-quarter results split across operators

• T-Mobile: The US operator reported third-quarter earnings and said it aims to be first with 6G in the United States. It also continued to rule out an MVNO deal with SpaceX’s Starlink. The 6G target had no launch date.
• Proximus wholesale: The unit dragged on Proximus Group’s third-quarter earnings; revenue fell 8.1% year over year to €55 million ($61.4 million).
• Proximus group: Revenue declined 0.2% to €1.53 billion ($1.70 billion), while underlying EBITDA fell 2.0% to €461 million ($515 million). CEO Stijn Bijnens said he believed the Belgian company was well positioned for opportunities in satellite connectivity and AI agents.
• Eutelsat: Mobile connectivity revenue rose 38.1% year over year in fiscal first-quarter results as the OneWeb low-Earth-orbit constellation offset lower geostationary satellite revenue. Total revenue reached €286 million ($319.5 million), down 2.4% on a reported basis. Eutelsat has also ordered 340 more OneWeb LEO satellites.

Orange and Mistral target sovereign AI

Orange Cyberdefense has partnered with Mistral AI, with the stated aim of building trust in sovereign AI. Orange Cyberdefense received early access to a variant of Mistral Large 4, also described as “Le Chonk.”

Mistral Large 4-powered systems will gradually enter services offered to Orange Cyberdefense customers. Initial priorities include penetration testing and exploring attack scenarios. The announcement describes early access and phased integration, rather than a completed service deployment.

KPN buys Xelion

Dutch operator KPN acquired business communications software company Xelion. Its platform lets employees make calls, chat and conduct video calls through WhatsApp, Microsoft Teams and customer relationship management systems from a single app.

Xelion will continue operating from Delft as an independent part of KPN. The financial details of the acquisition were not disclosed.

Police inquiry focuses on Google data center works

The Oulu Police Department is investigating suspected environmental damage caused by unauthorized groundworks for Google’s data center in Muhos, Finland. YLE reported that police had received information about irregularities in drainage and shortcomings in water management at the construction site. Google has put €13 billion into its Finnish data-center plan.

Copper migration deadline approaches

Openreach has issued a final warning to communications providers still using the copper-based public switched telephone network, or PSTN, as the January 2027 migration deadline approaches. Providers that have not completed the migration by then may have customers moved automatically onto its Emergency Voice Access, or EVAc, service.

Openreach said EVAc is “not built to support the connectivity needs of a modern business,” making automatic migration the immediate risk for providers that leave the copper transition unfinished.

5G offers a counterpoint to financial pressure

Telecom Italia’s then CEO Amos Genish said European telecom was facing a market failure. He said: “The telcos are running out of steam financially and shareholders are voting with their feet. We cannot ignore this market failure.” Genish argued that the imminent launch of 5G services offered some hope of salvation for the sector.

Openreach’s January 2027 migration is the nearest dated industry deadline. O2’s wider Hiya rollout and any final VMO2-Openreach agreement are the next operating milestones, while T-Mobile’s 6G target and Orange’s staged Mistral integration have no announced completion timetable.