• Liberty Global pauses search for NetCo investor
• SKT makes SIM replacement pledge 
• Lumen Technologies unveils its connectivity fabric

In today’s industry news roundup: Liberty Global pulls the plug on hunt for a new investor in NetCo but remains hopeful the network can drive much needed growth; SK Telecom promises to up its game with replacement SIM cards and automatically signs up mobile customers to new SIM protection service following its recent data breach; Lumen Technologies is still in turnaround mode but is investing heavily in new cloud-based service delivery capabilities; and much more!

Liberty Global has put on hold its efforts to secure an external investor for NetCo, the UK standalone wholesale high-speed fixed broadband access unit set up with the network assets of Virgin Media O2 (VMO2) in which Liberty Global holds a 50% stake. The process of attracting an investor into NetCo, which will compete directly with BT’s Openreach division and CityFibre, began last year, with Bloomberg reporting in September that VMO2 was seeking £1bn for a stake of between 20% and 40% in the venture. In that same month, VMO2’s CEO, Lutz Schüler, stressed that creating NetCo as a separate subsidiary was going to be tough and expensive and that an additional investor would be needed. But in its first-quarter earnings report, issued on Friday morning, Liberty Global noted that it had “decided to pause VMO2’s potential NetCo stake sale process to align with our JV [joint venture] partner” – the other 50% of VMO2 is owned by Telefónica – “but remain opportunistic on both network upgrade and development opportunities.” Liberty Global, which has telecom operations in the UK, Ireland, Belgium (Telenet) and the Netherlands, needs such efforts to pay off soon because its current telecom units all suffered sales and margin declines in the first quarter of 2025. In the UK, VMO2 reported a 4.2% year-on-year dip in revenues to £2.48bn, while adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) dipped by 1.3% to £914.1m. The operator lost 44,000 broadband connections during the first quarter to take its total down to just over 5.69 million, while its mobile subscriber base (not including internet of things or wholesale) dipped to 22.87 million from 23.47 million a year ago. In the Netherlands, where Liberty Global holds a 50% stake in VodafoneZiggo, the company has instigated a new strategy as intense competition resulted in a 5.6% year-on-year decline in revenues to just over $1bn and a 10.8% decline in adjusted EBITDA to $463m. It will revamp VodafoneZiggo’s operating and broadband pricing models, and accelerate its investments in DOCSIS 4.0 cable broadband technology to be able to offer even faster downlink speeds (up to 8 GBit/s by the end of 2026).  

In the wake of its major data breach and following a ruling by South Korea’s government, SK Telecom (SKT) has officially suspended new subscriber recruitment “until special measures related to SIM card [replacements] are prepared,” the operator’s CEO Ryu Young-sang announced during a briefing session held at SKT Tower in Euljiro, Seoul, on Friday. The CEO once again apologised “for the inconvenience and anxiety caused to customers due to this cyber breach” and explained “additional measures to protect customers,” noted the company in this press release (in Korean). In addition to suspending new subscriber recruitment at the company’s 2,600 T World stores across South Korea, SKT is to implement automatic subscription to the company’s SIM card protection service (which prevents fraudulent SIM card duplication), introduce “measures to secure inventory for smooth SIM card replacement, expand support for SIM card replacement at the airport for overseas travellers” and introduce a SIM card protection service “that can be used even when roaming”. Demand for new SIM cards has been high but SKT only had 1 million in reserve: It has now pledged to source 5 million new SIM cards this month, the same number next month, and more from July onwards. As for its SIM protection service subscription, up to now 14.42 million SKT customers have signed up, noted the operator: “For the remaining approximately 8.5 million customers, automatic subscriptions will be processed sequentially at a rate of up to 1.2 million per day... until 14 May,” it added. 

Lumen Technologies, the US long-distance data network operator that is pinning its future on AI-fuelled network capacity demand from enterprise users and datacentre operators, continues to lose money as it invests heavily in the infrastructure needed to meet the medium- and long-term needs of its customers, which include the major hyperscalers. But it has a plan to drive efficient future growth from the new networks and systems in which it is investing. The operator reported a 3% year-on-year dip in first-quarter revenues to $3.18bn and adjusted EBITDA (excluding one-off items) of $929m, down 5% from $977m a year earlier. The operator invested $791m in its networks and systems in the first quarter, an increase in capital expenditure (capex) spending of 11% year on year: It plans to invest between $4.1bn and $4.3bn in capex this year. “The team’s focus on operational excellence delivered better-than-expected financial results this quarter,” said Kate Johnson, Lumen’s president and CEO. “We continue to expand our network capacity and utilisation and create a growth engine with our Lumen Digital platform. As we transform, we will drive more innovation on top of our world-renowned fibre network, delivering greater value for our enterprise customers, shareholders, and employees.” That digital platform includes Lumen Connectivity Fabric, which the operator officially introduced during its first-quarter earnings call late on Thursday: It will enable the provision of multiple services (connectivity, infrastructure, communications, security, multimedia), including access to multiple cloud platforms, via a single high-capacity port that will reduce complexity and enable cloud-based service management. “We now have a clear path to deliver high-value cloud economics at scale,” stated Johnson on the earnings call. “Lumen’s business model is no longer bound by the traditional friction-filled limitations of telecom’s physical infrastructure and analogue business processes. Instead, our growth will be fuelled by our ability to deliver a comprehensive digital services portfolio with a friction-free CX [customer experience] aimed to serve enterprise needs in a multi-cloud, AI-first world. We’ll grow the portfolio of digital offerings by both building and acquiring capabilities to sell in our growing installed base of fabric ports,” she added. “Telecom hasn’t innovated in a long, long time. And we made some really tough choices two years ago to rethink how we spend our capital. And you’re seeing the fruits of those investments now with this platform and with value that we’re delivering to enterprises. And it’s still early in our transformation lifecycle, but the feedback from customers is really terrific,” stated the CEO. 

Juniper Networks, which is still hoping to complete its planned merger with Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), has reported an 11% year-on-year increase in first-quarter revenues to $1.28bn and an operating profit of $89m, compared with an operating loss of $14.2m a year earlier. “Business momentum remained strong during the March quarter, with total product orders rising nearly 40% year over year,” said Juniper’s CEO, Rami Rahim. “We continued to see particularly robust demand from our cloud customers, which are investing to support AI initiatives that are driving meaningful datacentre and wide area networking opportunities, many of which remain in the early innings. This strength is being complemented by accelerated enterprise momentum, where we experienced healthy order growth across both campus and datacentre use cases. Based on the strong execution of our teams and the demand signals we are seeing in the market, I remain confident in our growth prospects and ability to navigate current market conditions.” The $14bn merger between Juniper Networks and HPE was blocked in January by the US Department of Justice, and a court trial to rule on the DoJ’s complaint is scheduled to begin on 9 July. “Juniper Networks and HPE will vigorously defend the transaction and remain fully committed to completing it,” the vendor noted. 

– The staff, TelecomTV