What’s up with… Qualcomm & Mistral AI, Tech Mahindra & Nvidia, Community Fibre

• Qualcomm and Mistral AI take GenAI to the edge
• Tech Mahindra taps Nvidia for sovereign LLM R&D
• Community Fibre raises another £125m

In today’s industry news roundup: Qualcomm teams up with French GenAI specialist Mistral AI; Tech Mahindra is using Nvidia tech to develop a Hindi LLM for the Indian market; UK FTTH altnet Community Fibre raises more funds as it reaches break even; and much more!

Soon there will be no escaping the generative AI (GenAI) bubble… Having already wowed the networking sector this week with multiple launches and updates at its Snapdragon Summit event, especially those targeted at the auto sector, Qualcomm has announced a collaboration with Mistral AI to bring the French artificial intelligence specialist’s new GenAI models, Ministral 3B and Ministral 8B, to devices built using a number of its platforms, including the new Snapdragon 8 Elite Mobile Platform for smartphones, two new products designed for carmakers – Snapdragon Cockpit Elite and Snapdragon Ride Elite – and Snapdragon X Series Compute Platforms for AI PCs. “We are thrilled to announce our collaboration with Mistral AI to help achieve our goal of empowering devices at the edge with the latest advancements in AI technology,” noted Durga Malladi, Qualcomm’s senior VP and general manager of technology, planning and edge solutions. “Mistral AI’s Ministral 3B and Ministral 8B will enable device manufacturers, software vendors, and digital service providers to deliver innovative experiences, such as AI assistants and other applications that understand users’ wants and needs, thanks to the immediacy, reliability and enhanced privacy of on-device AI.” Arthur Mensch, co-founder and CEO of Mistral AI, added: “This collaboration with Qualcomm Technologies is a significant milestone for Mistral AI, demonstrating the ability of our new models to run locally on devices powered by Snapdragon platforms, resulting in faster local processing that can help reduce cost and energy demands. Together, we are democratising access to advanced AI, empowering developers and users worldwide to experience the full potential of our models right on their devices.”

Tech Mahindra is making use of multiple AI applications from Nvidia to set up a Center of Excellence (CoE) at its Makers Lab in Pune and Hyderabad in India to “drive advancements in sovereign large language model (LLM) frameworks, agentic AI, and physical AI.” Based on Tech Mahindra’s Optimized Framework, the CoE uses Nvidia’s AI Enterprise software tools that will enable enterprises to “adopt agentic AI in their businesses” – this “significantly improves productivity by enabling AI applications to learn, reason, and take action,” according to Tech Mahindra. The Indian tech giant has also developed Project Indus 2.0, an advanced AI model powered by Nvidia NeMo “based on Hindi and dozens of its dialects, such as Bhojpuri, Dogri, and Maithili… It stands out as a state-of-the-art LLM that advances Hindi and dialect conversations. In the future, Indus 2.0 aims to include agentic workflows and support multiple dialects to provide a more nuanced and effective AI solution tailored to India’s diverse linguistic and cultural landscape.” Hindi is spoken by about 43% of India’s total population of 1.4 billion, making it the most widespread language in the country. “Collaborating with Nvidia, we are setting a new benchmark for enterprise-grade AI development by seamlessly integrating GenAI, industrial AI and sovereign large language models into the heart of global enterprises and industries,” noted Tech Mahindra’s chief operating officer, Atul Soneja. 

There’s life in the UK fibre broadband altnet sector yet, it seems… Community Fibre has raised £125m via a new finance facility put together by JP Morgan, Barclays, LBBW, SIMCo (Sequoia Investment Management Company) and Alpha Bank, bringing the total investment in the company to £1.1bn. Community Fibre’s fibre access network reaches 1.3 million homes and businesses across London and the surrounding area. It has connected more than 310,000 residents and businesses across the capital and has seen an 85% increase in its customer base in the past 12 months, it noted in this announcement. It also says it has been EBITDA positive since April 2024: That’s a good marker of progress, though its annual report for 2023, published on 16 October, showed that in 2023 the operator generated revenues of only £41.7m and reported losses of £134.6m before tax. But fibre altnets don’t offer quick returns – this is a long-term investment play and it’s clear the banks see better years ahead for Community Fibre. 

According to a new report from the multinational telecoms and internet testing company, Spirent Communications, on the future of the high-speed Ethernet (HSE) market and the impact of AI advancements on datacentre telecoms and enterprise networking, advances in AI will result in “more Ethernet, everywhere!” As we are all aware, AI will have a profound and lasting effect on global communications and is already transforming datacentres and impacting data network capacity planning. The new Spirent impact report, The Future of High-Speed Ethernet Across Data Centre Telecom and Enterprise Networking, capitalises on Spirent’s long experience with both service providers and the manufacturers of networking equipment. It highlights the pace of innovation in the HSE market as the tsunami of AI-produced data results in major changes to Ethernet, the data connectivity protocol and standard that has been backbone of the internet and other comms networks for the past 40 years. As Ethernet evolved, its data transfer rates increased generation by generation and its latest iteration, enabling 1.6Tbit/s data transfers, is set to further transform datacentres. It is expected that the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers), which oversees the Ethernet standard, will not finalise the latest iteration of the standard until 2026, but a baseline set of features is available now through the 802.3dj task force. Meanwhile, the hyperscalers, with their enormous datacentres that routinely manage zettabytes of information, are also playing an integral part in reshaping the Ethernet roadmap. As the Spirent report shows, the popularity of HSE ports continues to grow. Last year, more than 70 million were shipped and expectations are that the volume will grow to 240 million ports by 2026. Meanwhile, the popularity of AI applications means new, more cost-effective approaches to network architectures will be required and it seems certain that edge capacity will grow as more and more AI processing takes place at distributed nodes. That will prompt the need for capacity upgrades in access and transport networks – forecasts suggest edge locations will need additional capacities soon. Innovation will be required for Ethernet connectivity within datacentres too: Remote Direct Memory Access over Converged Ethernet (RoCEv2) is a crucial enabler of high-performance, low-latency networking and it is made possible by facilitating direct memory access between devices over Ethernet. Commenting on the publication of the report, Aniket Khosla, vice president of Wireline Product Management at Spirent, said, “As the market focuses on the power and promise of AI, there is tremendous pressure to move faster, push the boundaries of speed, and relentlessly pursue every competitive edge available in the market”. That pressure is already having a marked effect and it will get more pronounced in 2025.

According to new market research published by Three Business, the business-to-business (B2B) division of mobile service provider Three UK, “technology-enabled” SMEs could contribute an additional £79bn to the UK economy over the next 12 months, provided they are allowed to prioritise investments in new technology by defraying some of the costs through tax-effective vehicles, such as capital allowances and other incentives. In a research report entitled Unlocking growth: The UK’s SMEs tech opportunity the operator further noted that the UK’s mobile networks, whilst a massively important part of the mix, are simply not good enough currently (but if Three was allowed to merge with Vodafone UK then everything would be better, is, of course, the subtext here). Some 97% of UK SMEs say connectivity is absolutely vital to the effective running of their business, but network quality in Britain comes in at a miserable 26th place out of a ranking of 31 European countries. Unsurprisingly, given that Three’s network covers 99% of Britain’s population and earlier this year was recognised by Ookla (whose respected Speedtest app monitors and checks real-world network performance and services) as having the fastest 5G in the country, the mobile telco is “calling for improved infrastructure to enable better connectivity for all UK businesses.” The new research, commissioned by Three Business, is based on economic analysis and the input from the data analytics and research firm YouGov, which polled more than 2,000 SMEs. It finds that 40% of SME business leaders believe productivity would increase with investments in AI and other digital technologies. A further 43% say the technology would allow them to become faster and more efficient. However, 42% of SMEs are worried that the deployment of new technologies and difficulties associated with getting them up and running commercially will slow their overall growth plans. What’s more, 55% say that the costs of new technology “are concerning”. In addition, 42% said they are unable to prioritise investment in new technology and 53% said poor mobile connectivity in their geographical area could affect their growth opportunities and plans. The report concludes that, “current connectivity capabilities are working against businesses in the UK with 5G availability and download speeds lagging significantly compared to Europe”. A report published earlier this year by the comms testing and monitoring specialist, MedUX, positioned the UK’s capital city, London, as providing one of the worst overall experiences when compared to its European counterparts, whilst simultaneously achieving the worst speed performance score in Europe, together with the second lowest in reliability (service consistency) and accessibility (time-to-content). Investing in technology for SMEs could also help the UK close the productivity gap with other major economies. For example, the report calculates that such investment would close the gap between the UK and the US by 25%, the UK and France by 34% and the UK and Germany by 29%. Mike Tomlinson from Three Business commented, “Technology is a key driver and enabler of growth for businesses, who are at the heart of the UK economy. This was recognised in the government’s long-term Industrial Strategy, published last week, which outlined a focus on supporting businesses who can deliver growth in the tech sector, as well as aiding the adoption of technologies that can aid boost the productivity of our businesses. At the same time, through the combination of Vodafone UK and Three UK, we would be able to invest £11bn in growing the UK’s mobile infrastructure, and create a best-in-class 5G network, which would further enable economic growth and innovation in all nations and regions.

The internet of things (IoT) demands of enterprises are becoming ever more complex, according to a new report, Cellular IoT: Enterprise Demands and Opportunities 2024, from Hurley Bottom, UK-based IoT specialist WirelessLogic. The demand for embedded SIM (eSIM) and remote SIM provisioning is growing quickly (together with the requirement for immediate support services) as more and more enterprises are now scaling their IoT deployments worldwide. Indeed, the report reveals that six out of 10 cellular IoT adopters say more than 50% of their deployed or planned IoT devices require international or multi-regional connectivity. The study, conducted on behalf of Wireless Logic by Kaleido Intelligence, shows that global IoT projects are becoming more complex, with issues such as permanent roaming restrictions and the delicate intricacies inherent to the management of multi-provider relationships frequently cited as major reasons why connectivity providers should include a full menu of flexible, value-added solutions from which their customers can select according to their differing needs. The new analysis also shows that 32.9% of respondents to the research questionnaire found current global connectivity support inadequate to their needs. Iain Davidson, senior product manager at Wireless Logic, commented, “Enterprises scaling IoT globally can’t afford to rely on connectivity alone, they need partners that can help them navigate the complexities of today’s fragmented connectivity landscape. Our research clearly shows that enterprises are looking for a holistic approach that adds value at every stage of their global deployments.” Meanwhile 55% of respondents that have deployed IoT said the primary technical reason for choosing a particular connectivity provider is quality of coverage. As far as non-technical or commercial factors are concerned, flexibility of setup was quoted by 53% of those interviewed as being of greatest importance, while 52% said a wide portfolio of value-added services also affected their choice of providers. Some 48% also cited customer support levels as being a major factor in their decision. Similar expectations exist among enterprises without current cellular IoT deployments, with customer support (50.5%), flexibility (49.5%) and value-added services (42.5%) identified as top priorities. Davidson added: “We’re seeing a notable shift in expectations here. Enterprises are no longer just connecting devices – they’re embedding IoT at the very heart of their operations. This demands value-added solutions that cover everything from initial setup and optimisation to ongoing management. Services like business intelligence, professional support and robust security have become essential. It’s a clear call for connectivity providers to raise their game with more sophisticated and tailored offerings.” As the global IoT sector grows in importance and value, permanent roaming restrictions have become a key factor influencing eSIM adoption. More than 32% of current adopters of cellular IoT emphasise the importance of over-the-air capabilities to optimise network choice, such as multi-IMSI (International Mobile Subscriber Identity) and eSIM. Such factors greatly influence their choice of IoT connectivity provider. This, the report shows, is especially important in the energy and utilities sectors, with 42% there regarding it as a primary guiding factor. Furthermore, 45% of organisations across all industries say that avoiding permanent roaming restrictions and operator lock-in are good reasons for choosing eSIM. However, 50% also say security is of primary importance while 47% are looking first to long-term cost reduction. One of the eSIM’s greatest benefits is the flexibility the technology confers. For example, the ability to perform in-life network switching permits a single SIM type to be used in all devices regardless of their destination. That said, many enterprises remain cautious about eSIM, often seeking a ‘wraparound service’ that extends well beyond technical connectivity. Of the enterprises that opted against eSIM, 30% said it’s because they remain unsure about its real benefits. Other concerns include limited support for both GSMA machine-to-machine (M2M) and consumer eSIM profiles by some mobile network operators (37%), quality and performance issues, including weak service level agreements and interoperability challenges (32%). Elsewhere, cost and time constraints involved in switching network profiles concern 32% of respondents while the same percentage referred to potential problems of integration with mobile network operators for visibility and control of the device fleet. 

– The staff, TelecomTV