• SK Telecom forges AI infrastructure partnership
• Vodafone leads Gartner’s private mobile networks ranking
• Telia boasts green mobile performance rankings

In today’s industry news roundup: SK Telecom is working closely with memory chip giant SK Hynix and AI infrastructure specialist Penguin; Gartner ranks the main companies operating in the private 4G and 5G networks sector; Telia scores higher in this year’s EcoVadis ranking and comes out top in mobile performance tests in Norway; and much more!

Another day, another AI-related business development from SK Telecom (SKT). The self-styled ‘AI company’ has forged an agreement with chip giant SK Hynix (a sister company in the SK Group) and AI infrastructure developer Penguin Solutions to “pursue joint research, development, and business promotion of artificial intelligence datacentre (AIDC) solutions” in targeted regions around the world. SKT, it should be noted, already has a strong relationship with Penguin Solutions, the brand name used by Smart Global Holdings in which SKT invested $200m in July 2024. The three companies will “explore business opportunities in the Asia Pacific and Middle East markets, including Japan, that could enable global expansion,” noted SKT, which recently unveiled a new corporate structure that will enable it to better capitalise on growth opportunities related to AI and telecom services, and unveiled its AI infrastructure superhighway strategy. The partners will also “build on their respective existing software capabilities to jointly develop and commercialise a full-stack software solution needed to build and operate” AI datacentres. SK Hynix and Penguin Solutions will collaborate on the development of next-generation datacentre memory chips. This is a critical area of development, according to SK Hynix, which believes that “innovation of semiconductor memory technology is essential for the efficient operation of AI datacentres… improving power efficiency and heat dissipation performance is the key challenge. Through collaboration with SK Telecom and Penguin Solutions, we plan to overcome the limitations of memory technology and lead the expansion of [the] global AI ecosystem,” it added. SKT’s CEO Ryu Young-sang stated: “This collaboration agreement lays the foundation for building globally competitive AI datacentres. We will combine the unique technologies of SK Group, such as semiconductors, energy, cooling and memory, with cooperation from global companies to discover and develop a highly competitive AI infrastructure business model.” Mark Adams, CEO of Penguin Solutions/Smart Global Holdings, added that the collaboration “builds on Penguin’s strengths in solving the complexity of AI. Penguin is excited about the potential of expanding our design, build, deployment, and management of cutting-edge AI solutions by leveraging the broad technology capabilities of SK Telecom and SK Hynix, and bringing our experience and innovative expertise into additional markets to provide value to new customers.”

Vodafone Group is the king of the private 4G/5G network services sector, according to a recent ‘quadrant’ ranking by analyst firm Gartner, which rated companies by their “completeness of vision” and “ability to execute”. The other telcos in the ‘leaders’ quadrant were Verizon (which highlighted the results in this press release), Orange Business, Telefónica and Deutsche Telekom. Nokia, which ended the third quarter of 2024 with almost 800 private mobile network customers, was ranked in the challengers quadrant, just ahead of Ericsson. Verizon is very pleased with its ranking: “Verizon has worked tirelessly to serve and advance the market for private wireless networks, and I feel this recognition from Gartner, together with the market response from our customers, is incredibly rewarding,” stated Jennifer Artley, senior VP of 5G acceleration at Verizon Business. “Verizon’s core competency is building networks. Combine that with our customer-centric approach, well-integrated portfolio solutions and platforms, and our US licensed-spectrum advantage, and you have our foundation for market leadership. We look forward to further developing the market and its ever-expanding ecosystem of partners, devices and applications both domestically and internationally.” 

Telia has been bigging itself up in the early days of the new year. It says its “sustainability performance in 2024 ranks in the top 1% of 130,000 global companies assessed by EcoVadis, a provider of business sustainability ratings,” and that, as a result, the Nordic telco has been awarded a “prestigious” EcoVadis Platinum Medal for the third consecutive year. EcoVadis evaluates 21 sustainability criteria across four themes: Environment, Labor & Human Rights, Ethics and Sustainable Procurement, noted Telia in this announcement, adding that for 2024 it achieved a combined score of 87 out of a possible 100 (up from 83 in 2023), with the slight increase mainly due to a higher score in the Environment and Ethics categories. Anna Augustson, Telia’s group head of sustainability, stated: “Our position at the centre of digitalisation gives us a fantastic platform to create positive impacts. Telia’s ambitious goals include achieving net-zero emissions by 2040 and reaching 2.2 million people with digital inclusion initiatives by 2026. This outstanding ranking from EcoVadis shows our progress, while inspiring us to do even more.” 

And the telco is also claiming bragging rights in Norway following an evaluation of 11,900 voice calls and more than 183,000 data tests in the country by test and measurement firm Rohde & Schwarz that put Telia at the top of the rankings. Georg Svendsen, VP of infrastructure at Telia Norway said: “We’re very proud to be recognised as Norway’s leading mobile network by a renowned authority in the field. This is a testament to our extensive network modernisation, which delivers exceptional connectivity experiences for our customers. We’ll continue to push the boundaries of what’s possible, ensuring our customers stay connected, empowered and at the forefront of today’s digital transition.” At the end of 2024, Telia became the first operator with nationwide 5G coverage in Norway, just four years after switching on the country’s first 5G base stations, and it currently boasts 1.6 million 5G mobile connections on its network. Read more. 

Kista, Sweden-based Sivers Semiconductors has landed what it describes as a “major chip development programme” by a leading Tier-1 telecom infrastructure vendor”. The $5.4m scheme will run from now until the end of 2026 and “will support the development of a next-generation, highly-integrated beamforming transceiver for various millimeter-wave telecom applications.” Read more. 

Aarne Aho is the new group CTO at Sky, the European pay-TV and broadband service provider that has operations in a number of European markets, most notably the UK and Ireland, Germany and Italy. Aho, who joined the company in December 2024, was previously managing director of the service delivery group at Liberty Global. 

– The staff, TelecomTV