Contributing Editor Annie Turner rounds up news highlights from June. Sovereignty tops the agenda in Europe, while Open RAN is set to surge in India and beyond, and T-Mobile readies to launch commercial D2D services in July. 

In June, it seemed that almost every day there was another announcement by a European telco about sovereignty and their efforts to reduce their reliance on US companies. Here is a flavour of them.

Taking T in the cloud

Telekom Deutschland (Deutsche Telekom’s German opco) and T-Systems are to offer all cloud solutions from one source, known as T Cloud, led by Lars Neumann. He and his team will be responsible for sales, implementation and the development of T Cloud across Deutsche Telekom’s B2B division.

Neumann stated, “By bundling all our cloud activities across the entire Group under one roof, we can offer every customer the cloud solution that meets their specific requirements – whether public or private. This creates the basis for exponential growth. In this way, we will ensure digital sovereignty and support European independence in the global cloud landscape.”

Orange launches dedicated defence division

Orange Business has set up a dedicated – but “integrated” Defense & Security Division (Direction Défense & Sécurité – DD&S) to strengthen its “commitment to sovereignty”. The operator group says this strategic decision aligns with its Lead the Future roadmap, set out in 2023, making “Orange’s focus on strategic verticals with high sovereignty stakes a reality”.

The new division aims to address areas including: resilient connectivity solutions; the hybridisation of civilian and military networks; hosting sensitive data; emergency communication systems; and AI and cybersecurity.

Its activities will be in collaboration Orange’ Cyberdefense business, also drawing on Orange Business’ expertise in deploying, operating and maintaining digital infrastructure. The new entity will be led by Nassima Auvray.

D2D SatCo sets up in Luxembourg

SatCo, the joint venture between Vodafone Group and AST SpaceMobile, is to have headquarters in Luxembourg, to offer “a European sovereign integrated satellite service”. SatCo was announced at MWC in 2025 and will continue until at least 2034. Vodafone has had a presence in the Duchy since 1999.

SatCo is to offer direct-to-device (D2D) mobile broadband satellite services to complement terrestrial networks. The partners say it has had expressions of interest from mobile network operators in 21 EU member states, as well as in other European markets. Commercial services are expected to begin in 2026.

T-Mobile – commercial D2D services from July

There’s lots of D2D activity in the US too. At a livestreamed event, the company said its T-Satellite with Starlink will be commercially available on July 23 and will include SMS texting, MMS, picture messaging and short audio clips. Data services will be available from 1 October. The operator started a beta phase in February and saw 1.8 million users sign up to try the service, which is about 1.5% of T-Mobile’s subscriber base.

The event also celebrated Ookla naming T-Mobile the Best Network in one of the largest scale network tests of its kind undertaken in the US.

India opts for Open RAN

Rakuten Symphony and Tejas Networks, a Tata Group company, announced “a multi-faceted strategic partnership” to develop integrated Open RAN solutions and jointly get products to market, in India and beyond.

The companies will work to integrate Rakuten Symphony’s central and distributed units (CU and DU) software, OSS and cloud portfolio with Tejas’s 4G and 5G radio range. They will also explore opportunities to deploy and expand 4G and 5G networks worldwide, leveraging commercial and technical synergies, as well as collaborative engagement strategies.

As a side note, this article in RCR Wireless News casts doubt on the perceived parlous state of Open RAN globally, and makes interesting, cheery reading.

GPS to guide best signal

From cutting edge tech to an interesting case of using a tried and trusted technology in a new way, Vodafone announced it will  use GPS to align land-based 4G and 5G antennas and consistently provide the best mobile signal. It said mobile antennas shift over time due to weather or seismic activity, which can degrade the quality of connection.

Starting in September, Vodafone will roll out the satellite-guided sensors in Albania before extending deployment to other countries. The sensors will be installed within new radio antennas, located on top of mobile masts. Vodafone says it will be the first mobile operator to use GPS to align antennas in a commercial network. It seems a no-brainer that it won’t be the last.

More connections, less energy

Telecoms’ operational emissions fell by 8% between 2019 and 2023, although mobile connections grew by 9% and data traffic quadrupled in that time. This is according to the GSMA’s fifth annual Mobile Net Zero report which demonstrates that the mobile industry has started to break the link between emissions from data and growth in connectivity. In stark contrast, global emissions have increased 4% since 2019.

However, to progress and reach net zero by 2050, emissions must fall by 7.5% annually every year to 2030, which means more than doubling the average annual rate of energy saving achieved so far.

New analysis of China by the GSMA shows operational emissions probably fell by 4% in 2024 which is the first decline after a 7% rise between 2019–2023. China has also more than quadrupled its use of renewable energy.