France

Christophe Fouquet’s criticism of the EU’s evolving Chips Act is less an attack on industrial policy than a challenge to where sovereignty can realistically be exercised in a global AI economy. As the UK and France shift towards sovereign compute, …

Major telcos in France have agreed a deal to split SFR, the country’s second-biggest operator, between Bouygues Telecom, Orange, and Iliad. The transaction boosts their commercial scale, investment capacity, and sovereignty ambitions, but it has to get past regulatory approval …

Softbank’s €75bn plan to build 5GW of AI data center capacity in France is being hailed in Paris as a breakthrough for European digital sovereignty. But the scale of foreign capital – despite the absence of US hyperscalers – raises …

Airbus is expanding its private 5G rollout with new networks in Hamburg and Toulouse, partnering with Ericsson. The deployments support factory digitalization, enabling advanced use cases like augmented reality, asset tracking, and predictive maintenance, as Airbus advances plans to replace …

Unabiz’s Sigfox business in France has entered judicial reorganisation at the Singapore-based firm’s request, seeking debt relief and breathing space despite recent growth. Unabiz is seeking to preserve jobs, contracts, and long-term innovation. In sum – what to know: Reprieve …

Orange Business has launched a dedicated Defense & Security Division to deliver sovereign, resilient digital infrastructure to France’s defense sector, combining 5G, fiber, satellite, AI, IoT, and cybersecurity tech. New business unit – Orange DD&S focuses on France’s defense and …

The 3.8-4.2 GHz band is central to the European vision to harmonize industrial 5G use cases, acknowledges French regulator. 5G spectrum talks — Arcep has launched two consultations on assigning the 3.8–4.2 GHz band for private mobile networks in metropolitan …

Ericsson’s new private 5G network in Istres, France, slashes surveillance costs, boosts city resilience, and sets a model for mid-sized smart-city deployments – delivering scalable infrastructure, sovereign control, and rapid returns. In sum – what to know: Gateway application – …

The business arm of French telecoms operator SFR has launched two new 5G network ‘slicing’ options for enterprise customers. These “differentiated connectivity solutions”, using 5G SA technology in the 3.5 GHz band in France, provide a “privileged access service” and …

French LoRaWAN specialist Actility has acquired a France-based LoRaWAN startup called API-K, which produces a LoRaWAN tracking system for mountain sports and rescue teams, and was co-founded by LoRaWAN luminaries François Sforza and Nicolas Sornin, two parts of the three-man …

Satellite IoT operator Kinéis has a deal with Hyderabad-based space engineering solutions provider Dhruva Space to produce compatible devices and solutions to grow low-power satellite IoT applications in India. Kinéis will have a constellation of 25 nanosatellites in low-Earth orbit …

France-based Dracula Technologies, developing low-light energy-harvesting technology for passive (battery-less) LoRaWAN-based IoT connectivity, has said its new production facility in Valence in southeastern France has passed an audit by US-based Semtech for quality, safety and sustainability, and is ready to …

French IoT chipmaker Sequans Communications, which saw its $249m takeover by Japan-based Renesas Electronics come undone at the eleventh hour at the end of last month, has been granted €10.9 million from the French government to go towards development of …

Swedish IoT operator Netmore Group has acquired the public LoRaWAN network assets of operator Bouygues Telecom in France. The deal has been facilitated by Polar Structure, parent company of Netmore, and covers the Objenious-branded LoRaWAN infrastructure that Bouygues had earmarked …

The business division of France-based mobile operator Orange is offering a hybrid public/private (‘private’) standalone 5G (SA) solution in its home country, combining simultaneous access to its public network with private network deployments for enterprises. It is the first time …

New York headquartered GlobalFoundries and Switzerland-headquartered STMicroelectronics (STMicro) have confirmed a deal to build a jointly-operated semiconductor manufacturing facility in Crolles, in France, at a total project cost of €7.5 billion – of which around €3 billion will reportedly be …

Swedish IoT operator Netmore Group has started to deploy a public LoRaWAN network in France, it has said. Its French debut follows a period of busy expansion in 2022, following its acquisition of Nordic IoT Networks in early 2021 and …

French water distribution company Société de Gérance et de Distribution d’Eau (Sogedo) has signed a 10 year deal with Singapore-based IoT development house Unabiz, which owns the Sigfox IoT network technology, to enhance water conservation and management in France. Sogedo …

The “largest private industrial 5G network in Europe” has opened in Calais, in France, using 59 small cell antennas to cover a 50,000 square-metre production site belonging to Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN), the optical submarine division of telecoms vendor Nokia. …

Singapore-based UnaBiz, owner of the Sigfox technology, has completed a Series B funding extension worth $25 million, to take its total Series B investment, initially pegged at $25 million in late 2021, to over $50 million. The new funding comes …

A session at Private Networks European Forum (PNEF) last month considered the challenges, and broader cultural shift, to bring ‘private 5G to the masses’. Koen Mioulet, secretary at the European Users Wireless Enterprise Network Association (EUWENA), and Maria Cuevas, networks …

Note, this is a revised version of the intro/outro statements at Private Networks European Forum earlier this month, presented then as a way to invite conversation about the state of ‘things’ in Europe, and re-presented now as a think-piece for …

French regulator Arcep has awarded three new trial spectrum licences for enterprises to deploy private 5G networks in the 3.8-4.0 GHz band, taking its total roster of enterprise trialists in France to 13. The band is being liberated for French …

This is article is taken from a recent editorial report on Industrial 5G Innovation – From Setting Standard to Becoming Standard; the previous instalment in this serialised version of the report is available here. Subsequent instalments are listed below (linking …

France-based precision agriculture startup Sencrop has raised $18 million in Series B funding, led by Israeli venture capital firm JVP. Sencrop, founded in 2016, headquartered in Lille, claims to be Europe’s leading provider of “field-connected solutions”, with 20,000 farmers in …