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Eurobites: Ericsson, Telia plan Swedish test center for 5G, 6G and AI. Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: CityFibre extends backhaul deal with VodafoneThree; Eutelsat lands AST maritime gig; MasOrange chooses Polystar's analytics. Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading June 22, 2026 Ericsson and Telia are the lead partners in a project to create a new national 5G, 6G and AI test center in Sweden. Called Digital Arena Sweden, the planned center will feature, among other things, a pre-commercial 6G test environment in collaboration with Lund University and the KTH Royal Institute of Technology. The project, which builds on the existing NorthStar 5G testing collaboration between Ericsson and Telia, represents an investment of more than 300 million Swedish kronor (US$31.2 million), some of that coming from Vinnova, the Swedish government's innovation agency. (See Eurobites: Telia, Ericsson snuggle up on 5G testbed.) CityFibre extends backhaul deal with VodafoneThree. CityFibre, the largest of the UK's chasing pack of alternative network operators (altnets), has extended its existing backhaul contract with VodafoneThree to bolster the mobile operator's 5G standalone ambitions. More than 330,000 Vodafone residential broadband customers are already connected to CityFibre, says the altnet, with services including Vodafone's 2.2Gbit/s symmetrical home broadband service via CityFibre's XGS-PON network. (See CityFibre CTO has five-star broadband plan to beat Openreach.) Eutelsat lands AST maritime gig. Maritime connectivity specialist AST Networks has signed a new multi-year deal with Eutelsat to extend its use of Eutelsat's OneWeb low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellite services offering. Eutelsat and OneWeb merged in 2023, forming what the companies described at the time as the world's first integrated GEO-LEO integrated satellite communications operator. (See Eurobites: Eutelsat orders 340 more OneWeb LEO satellites.) MasOrange chooses Polystar's analytics. Spanish mobile operator MasOrange has gone with Polystar's Kalix and Osix network analytics software following its integration of two previously separate mobile networks - Orange Spain's and MasMovil's. In the wake of the integration, MasOrange says it required a single platform to align KPIs, replace legacy systems and provide consistent visibility across its network. The deployment is described as a hybrid, combining centralized on-premises installation with scalable cloud-based processing using Google Cloud and Kubernetes. DNA awarded Oulu project. The local authority in the Finnish city of Oulu has chosen DNA to be its provider of regional networks and Internet connections after a tendering process. As part of the deal, DNA will set up around 300 corporate network connections. DNA is also involved in the "6G Rocket" project being led by the University of Oulu, which aims to develop AI-enabled radio networks. Iliad upgraded. Iliad's credit rating has been upgraded from Ba3 to Ba2 after it secured €10 billion ($11.45 billion) in bank financing commitments in the space of a few days. The first tranche, €6.5 billion ($7.4 billion), was earmarked for the proposed joint acquisition - along with Orange and Bouygues - of rival French operator SFR, agreed earlier this month. (See French telcos strike €20.4B deal to buy Altice's SFR.) GSMA spots RoC potential. A new report from the GSMA claims that targeted policy and regulatory reforms in the telecom sphere could "unlock" 870 billion West African francs ($1.48 billion) in additional economic value for the Republic of Congo, creating more than 144,000 jobs and connecting more than half a million additional people to mobile Internet services by 2030. Currently, says the GSMA, only 19% of the population uses mobile Internet, while 70% of those within coverage remain offline. Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading Paul is based on the Isle of Wight, a rocky outcrop off the English coast that is home only to a colony of technology journalists and several thousand puffins. He has worked as a writer and copy editor since the age of William Caxton, covering the design industry, D-list celebs, tourism and much, much more. During the noughties Paul took time out from his page proofs and marker pens to run a small hotel with his other half in the wilds of Exmoor. There he developed a range of skills including carrying cooked breakfasts, lying to unwanted guests and stopping leaks with old towels. Now back, slightly befuddled, in the world of online journalism, Paul is thoroughly engaged with the modern world, regularly firing up his VHS video recorder and accidentally sending text messages to strangers using a chipped Nokia feature phone. Want more Light Reading stories in your Google search results? Join 62,000+ members. Yes it's completely free.

Free set to acquire major part of SFR in French telecoms shake-up. June 8, 2026 12.03 Europe/London By Julian Clover The Iliad Group has taken a major step towards acquiring part of rival SFR, in a deal that would significantly reshape the French telecommunications market and strengthen Free's position as the country's leading challenger operator. Under a memorandum of understanding announced with Altice France, alongside Bouygues Telecom and Orange, Iliad's Free would acquire more than eight million additional subscribers and a portfolio of valuable mobile spectrum assets. The proposal remains subject to employee consultations and regulatory approval. The transaction would see Free take control of SFR's low-cost RED brand, which serves around six million customers, alongside 1.6 million SFR consumer subscribers and approximately 400,000 small business customers. Following completion, Free would have close to 31 million subscribers in France. In addition to the customer base, Iliad would acquire 50 MHz of spectrum across several frequency bands, strengthening its network capacity and supporting future growth in mobile data consumption. The agreement forms part of a wider break-up of SFR, once France's second-largest telecoms operator. While details of the division between the three operators have not been fully disclosed, the deal would further consolidate the French market around Orange, Bouygues Telecom and Free. Iliad said the acquisition would generate around €2 billion in additional annual revenue and approximately €900 million in additional operating cash flow, including more than €500 million in synergies. The operator has already secured €6.5 billion in financing for the transaction. The assets being acquired by Iliad are valued at €6.2 billion as part of a wider consortium deal valuing Altice France's assets at €20.35 billion. The move comes as European telecoms operators seek greater scale to support investment in fibre, 5G, cloud services, data centres and artificial intelligence infrastructure. Iliad recently announced plans to invest €4 billion in next-generation data centres and sovereign cloud services and is part of the AION consortium bidding to build a European AI Gigafactory in France. Chief executive Thomas Reynaud said the transaction would strengthen Free's ability to invest while maintaining its role as a disruptive force in the market. "This transaction is good news for Free, but also for the French telecommunications market," he said. "In a sector that must invest ever more in networks, cybersecurity, cloud computing and artificial intelligence, strong players are essential." If approved, the deal would make Iliad the third-largest telecoms operator in the European Union by subscriber numbers, further expanding a group that already operates in France, Italy and Poland.

If approved by regulators, the Bouygues-led acquisition would rank among the biggest European telecoms deals in recent years.