To take advantage of new markets, the agile telco needs the right partnerships and technologies in place. Antony Savvas looks at some of the latest developments that can help drive success.
Colt Technology Services has been selected to deliver a global network for A&K Travel Group (AKTG) and its portfolio of premier travel brands, including Abercrombie & Kent, Crystal and Cox & Kings. AKTG’s brands provide travel adventures in more than 100 countries around the world, and rely on a secure global network to keep customers, employees and travel partners connected. The group has tasked Colt with building out its global connectivity network to provide agile, quantum-safe security solutions that operate without distance limitations, across any location worldwide.
This foundation provides AKTG with a resilient, interconnected network architecture on which it can run its business. Part of the project will see Colt team up with Arqit, the quantum-safe encryption technology company, with a quantum-secure wide area network, to help protect AKTG from the future risk presented by quantum computers, including the potential attacker threat presented by the “harvest data now, decrypt later” phenomenon.
“We operate some of the most remote and operationally complex travel experiences in the world, from expedition ships and river vessels to safari camps and global offices. Delivering those experiences requires secure, resilient connectivity that performs consistently across continents and environments,” says Fabio Agostini, the chief information officer at A&K Travel Group. “As our digital ecosystem continues to evolve, protecting our data, our communications and ultimately our guests is a strategic priority. Colt’s global infrastructure provides the robust network foundation we need, and through its integration with Arqit’s quantum-safe encryption technology, we are proactively strengthening our security posture against future threats.”
Buddy Bayer, the chief operating officer at Colt Technology Services, adds: “Abercrombie & Kent is a brand synonymous with unforgettable tailor-made journeys, from stargazing in the Serengeti to navigating the Nile by riverboat. Delivering a seamless digital experience is now just as essential as delivering those memorable moments.”
The ‘Starlink effect’
Novaspace, the space consulting and market research firm, forecasts global throughput demand for high throughput satellites (HTS) will reach 218 Tbps by 2034, while service revenues are set to more than double to US$76 billion over the same period. The findings reflect a market entering a new phase of scale, driven by the rapid expansion of non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) constellations – led by Starlink – and a step change in performance, pricing and global adoption, says Novaspace.
“Starlink’s impact has been catalytic,” says Dimitri Buchs, a manager at Novaspace. “Lower-cost capacity, rapid scaling and improved service quality have reset expectations across the market. The entire satcom ecosystem is now being pushed to innovate, differentiate, and rethink strategic positioning.”
The firm’s research highlights a rapidly evolving competitive landscape across both geostationary orbit (GEO) and NGSO HTS systems:
- GEO operators are adapting to remain competitive, adopting flexible, software-defined payloads and lower-capex small GEO platforms to improve cost efficiency and throughput.
- NGSO networks are redefining performance and pricing benchmarks, driving HTS service revenues up 44% between 2020 and 2025, from US$21.5 billion to nearly US$31 billion
- High-growth applications are emerging, particularly in land mobility, MilSatCom and Aero IFC, where demand for high-performance, low-latency connectivity is accelerating
Scaling this next phase of growth will require greater coordination across the ecosystem, with the research underscoring the growing importance of multi-orbit interoperability, hybrid terrestrial-satellite architectures and converged network standards, to enable more seamless and cost-effective deployments.
“In this next phase, execution will be critical,” Buchs says, “operators that can combine scale with flexibility, and deliver high-performance connectivity across multiple domains, will be best positioned to capture this expanding market.”
Managed services
Xantaro Group, a managed service provider for high-performance networks and security solutions for carriers and enterprises, has sealed a collaboration agreement with Nokia. Xantaro has launched its new managed systems services, beginning with a fully managed offering for Nokia Altiplano. The move marks the first in a series of planned services to support customers evolving towards more automated, intelligent network operations.
“As the market matures, many network operators are focusing on driving subscriber take-up rates. However, to ensure smooth, single-visit customer installations, operators need highly resilient, 24/7 network availability without the burden of managing complex IT infrastructure,” says the company.
To solve this industry challenge, Xantaro’s Managed Altiplano offering provides a carrier grade turnkey, all-in-one solution that comprises:
- Standardised hardware: Xantaro specifies, installs and standardises the required servers, switches and firewalls directly within the customer’s network.
- End-to-end management: Xantaro’s engineers manage the Kubernetes cluster and Altiplano platform remotely, taking away major operational burden for the provider.
- Seamless upgrades: Because the hardware is standardised across Xantaro’s customer estate, complex software upgrades and testing only need to be conducted once, ensuring all operators benefit from the latest features efficiently and securely.
The managed service is being offered to operators across Europe. “For many service providers, recruiting and retaining the Kubernetes and software skills required to run modern orchestration platforms is a major headache. Our Managed Altiplano service completely removes that pain point,” said Marcus Cuthbert, the managing director of Xantaro UK. “By standardising the hardware and all-in-one management, we ensure the platform is available 24/7, allowing our customers to focus entirely on driving subscriber take-up and delivering a flawless installation experience.”
Sylvain Rajaud, the vice president and head of partner sales management, Europe, at Nokia, adds: “Nokia’s Altiplano platform is the industry standard for fixed network automation, with cloud native architecture and proven multi-vendor interoperability. Xantaro’s Managed Altiplano service complements our technology by providing the scalability and hands‑on support to operators who lack in-house expertise, enabling them to accelerate growth while confidently transitioning toward more efficient, automated networks.”
Sovereign AI
Rebellions, a specialist in AI inference infrastructure, is collaborating with SK Telecom (SKT) and Arm to develop AI inference infrastructure designed to support sovereign AI and telecoms-focused AI data centres. The focus will be on supplying customised, stability-proven solutions to global telcos and government organisations that require independent AI infrastructure.
Through the alliance, the companies plan to develop an AI server combining Arm AGI CPU, the first Arm-designed data centre CPU, with Rebellions’ AI chips. The system will be validated in SKT’s AI data centre environment before expanding to global markets. The alliance aims to address the surging demand in the inference market and set standards for high-performance, energy-efficient sovereign AI infrastructure. Beyond hardware integration, the partners will co-develop the entire software stack, including firmware, and verify performance and stability for sovereign AI models and telco-specific large-scale data processing. This includes putting data through SKT’s proprietary foundation AI model, A.X K1.
“We expect this collaboration of experts to serve as a significant precedent in the industry for building AI-specialised infrastructure,” says Jinwook Oh, the CTO of Rebellions.
“By providing a full package that combines inference-optimised infrastructure with our proprietary foundation model, A.X K1, we will further strengthen our competitiveness in the AI data centre market,” adds Jaeshin Lee, vice president and head of AI business development at SK Telecom.
Antony Savvas