Colt Admits Data Stolen by Hackers in Cyber Incident
In a recent update on their website, Colt Technology Services has revealed that data was stolen by hackers in a cyber incident that affected their internal systems. The network operator and enterprise services specialist had previously stated that they were dealing with a "cyber incident" that had forced them to shut down some services. However, it wasn't until now that they have admitted that specific data was compromised.
According to Colt, the threat actor behind the cyber attack is believed to be the Warlock ransomware group. In their FAQ section about the hack, Colt notes that a criminal group accessed certain files from their systems that may contain information related to their customers and posted the document titles on the dark web.
The breach has led to disruption in some of Colt's Business Support Services, including their online customer portal, number hosting APIs, Colt on Demand (NaaS portal), and the system used to order and provision new services. The exact nature of the files impacted is still unknown, but Colt is working to determine this and notify any affected parties.
Orange Belgium Hit by Data Breach in Cyber Attack
Computer Weekly reports that Orange Belgium has also been hit by a data breach caused by the same "threat actors" as Colt. The Belgian operator reported that at the end of July, a cyberattack on one of its IT systems resulted in unauthorized access to certain data from 850,000 customer accounts.
Fortunately, no critical data was compromised, including passwords, email addresses, bank or financial details. However, the stolen data included surnames, first names, telephone numbers, SIM card numbers, PUK codes, and tariff plans of impacted customers.
Telefónica Signs Deal with Huawei for 5G Core Platform
Spanish newspaper El Pais reports that Telefónica has signed a new five-year deal with Huawei to support its consumer mobile customers in Spain until 2030. The Chinese vendor's low price was reportedly key to securing the deal from Telefónica.
The news comes in the wake of a report by Reuters in late July, which stated that Telefónica's chief operating officer (COO) Emilio Gayo reportedly told the financial news agency that the operator is "reducing our exposure to Huawei" in Germany and Spain to follow local regulations. However, Telefónica will continue to work closely with Huawei in its major operations in Brazil.
Optical Sector Sees 14% Year-on-Year Growth in Equipment Investments
Dell'Oro Group reports that the optical network equipment sector saw a 14% year-on-year increase in investments during the second quarter of 2025. The main drivers of this growth were demand for disaggregated WDM and datacentre interconnect (DCI) systems.
According to Jimmy Yu, a VP and analyst at Dell'Oro Group, "Following six quarters of soft sales in optical transport, it was great to see this market recover and post a strong double-digit growth rate."
Dell'Oro notes that investments in optical transport network technology by cloud providers drove most of the year-on-year growth, while spending by telcos also increased. The top six vendors in terms of optical revenues in the second quarter were Huawei, Ciena, Nokia, ZTE, FiberHome and Cisco.
Dell'Oro Predicts Steady Growth for Optical Equipment Sector
In July, Dell'Oro predicted that the optical equipment sector would experience steady growth during the next five years, with the value of the sector reaching $19bn by 2029. This trend was also suggested by Heavy Reading in a recent white paper examining the impact of AI traffic on metro and long-haul optical networks.
Heavy Reading's report noted that the increasing demand for disaggregated WDM and DCI systems will drive growth in the sector, particularly driven by investments from cloud providers to support AI workload traffic.