Vodafone Group said Monday its service revenue increased 3.7% Q1, to $10.1 billion, but its business in Germany continues to struggle. Service revenue there was down 1.3%. “As we progress our plans to transform Vodafone, we have achieved a better service revenue performance across almost all of our markets,” CEO Margherita Della Valle said : “We have delivered particularly strong trading in our Business segment and returned to service revenue growth in Europe.” Africa was a high point, with revenue growth of 9%. Service revenue in the U.K. was up 5.7%. Vodafone also announced a new chief financial officer, Luka Mucic, effective Sept. 1. Mucic joins the company from SAP SE, a German multinational software company.

Japan’s NTT Group said Thursday it's sending network engineers and repair equipment, including 12 bucket trucks, to Guam due to Typhoon Mawar. NTT said it answered a call from Guam Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero (D). “Damage to the island’s infrastructure by the May typhoon has caused widespread, ongoing loss of power for residents and businesses as well as considerable damage to IT and communications infrastructure,” NTT said.

China is probably “at least” two or three years behind the U.S. in generative AI, said Samm Sacks, cyber policy fellow at New America and senior fellow at Yale Law School, during a Brookings webinar Wednesday. China appears to be relying on “iterations off of cutting edge research” published in other countries, she said. Chinese officials are struggling with how to balance information control with their desire to lead the world on AI, she said. “AI generates and disseminates information that’s of real concern to the Communist Party leadership,” she said. Cyberspace Administration of China (CCA) has “really been in the driver’s seat” on AI regulation, but the Ministry of Science and Technology is “likely going to have the pen for China’s AI law, which is in the works,” Sacks said. The CCA would likely take a more conservative stance on AI rules than the ministry, she said. Chinese censorship “has a limiting effect on the availability and quality of data,” she said. Another issue for China is U.S. restrictions on access to the most advanced semiconductors, and the Chinese semiconductor industry is “generally several generations behind,” she said. China has been relying on a loophole to use cloud service providers to “rent access” to advanced chips, she said: “We need to watch is this an area where the U.S. government is going to come in and try to close the loophole. How successful will China’s AI ambitions be given these constraints from the U.S.?” Marietje Schaake, Stanford University Cyber Policy Center international policy director, urged flexibility in EU regulations as negotiations continue between the European Council and the European Parliament. “We may not know what will come next, but we do know that something else will come next and generative AI is certainly not the last disruptive iteration” of AI, she said.

European telecom operators agreed to extend for 12 months their agreement allowing displaced Ukrainians to stay connected, the European Commission announced. The pact, signed in April 2022, allows telcos to mutually lower the rates they charge to connect calls across borders. Data from the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications, which monitors the impact of the agreement, shows the regime efficiently allowed operators to provide affordable calls. Twenty-two European and seven Ukrainian telcos have signed on, and the EC urged all operators to do so. Simultaneously, it said it's preparing to integrate Ukraine into the EU roaming area, which would provide a more stable, long-term solution.

The U.N. Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and Huawei announced the launch of the Global Alliance on Artificial Intelligence for Industry and Manufacturing” (AIM Global) aimed at “shaping” the AI landscape. “It is our shared responsibility to ensure that advancements in the field of AI are made in a manner that is safe, ethical, sustainable and inclusive,” said UNIDO Director General Gerd Muller Monday. “AIM Global recognizes the importance of bridging the digital divide between nations and industries, and ensuring that no one is left behind in the AI revolution,” Gerd said.

The BT Group board of directors is starting a search for a successor to Chief Executive Philip Jansen, who “has informed the Board that at an appropriate moment over the next 12 months he intends to step down from his role,” the U.K.-based company said Monday. “We expect to be able to update the market on progress over the course of the summer,” said Adam Crozier, BT Group chairman: “In the meantime, it is business as usual, and we are focused on executing our plans and delivering for all our stakeholders.” Jansen said BT made progress in his more than four years at the helm, with more than 11 million homes now passed with fiber, and 5G service available to 68% of the country, while “customer service is much improved.”

China has been blocking thousands of foreign websites and internet technologies since 1996, Strand Consult said in a report released Thursday. The restrictions imposed by China “continue to evolve and are increasingly sophisticated,” Strand said: “They encompass basic blocking and filtering tactics and are also systemic within the PRC’s [People’s Republic of China’s] physical internet architecture and access level, comprising exchange points, hardware, and software. Moreover, restrictions are delivered at many levels of government and enterprise, whether top level regulators like the Cyberspace Administration and the State Information Council or the censorship practices of PRC companies themselves.” Strand said the system is “guided by hundreds of thousands of ‘internet commentators’ who are hired to model preferred discussion and behaviors online, virtual internet police avatars, and stiff punishments for transgressions.”

Ericsson plans to build a next-generation smart manufacturing and tech hub in Tallinn, Estonia, with a net investment of $169 million, the company announced Wednesday. The company plans to consolidate all its operations in Estonia in a 50,000 square-meter hub “that comprises test labs, warehouses, production lines, and offices,’ Ericsson said: “It will be used for co-developing cellular ecosystems and production techniques mainly with customers and partners in Europe but with global impact on industrialization for volume production.” The company said it signed an agreement to buy property for the hub, to be located in Ulemiste City in Tallinn, with hopes of opening in early 2026.

China-based Dahua disputed Motorola Solutions’ objection to giving Dahua’s compliance plan with FCC rules confidential treatment (see 2306260041). “Rather than maintaining ‘silence’ on the key issue of how the Compliance Plan implicates confidential information as [Motorola] argues, Dahua USA has provided substantive justification for why confidential treatment is consistent with the Commission’s rules,” said a filing posted Monday in docket 21-232: “Dahua USA has explained that the Compliance Plan contains information regarding its internal organization, operations and strategy, and its agreements with distributor and dealer partners.” Dahua, which is on the FCC’s covered list of companies deemed to pose a security risk, filed the plan with the FCC in April to show how its gear won’t affect public safety or other secure communications.

Mobile World Congress Shanghai drew 37,000 attendees, with nearly 3,000 from outside mainland China, GSMA said Friday. Attendees represented more than 8,000 companies and hailed from more than 115 countries, the group said. The conference ended Friday.