Orange and CEA launch joint lab to develop semantic communications for AI-native networks - Capacity

Orange and France’s CEA (the Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission) have launched a joint research laboratory, AI-Native Communications, dedicated to developing semantic communications for future networks. The lab was unveiled at VivaTech by Orange CEO Christel Heydemann and CEA General Administrator Anne-Isabelle Etienvre, with French AI and Digital minister delegate Anne Le Hénanff in attendance. Semantic communications mark a shift from how networks currently handle data.

Today, any alteration to a transmitted bit is treated as an error that degrades the connection. Under a semantic approach, a transmission would instead be judged successful once the receiver understands the meaning of the message, even if the data received isn’t an exact copy of what was sent. Orange and CEA say the method could reduce the volume of data moving across networks, cutting energy consumption and infrastructure needs, while also opening up more efficient exchanges between AI agents as they take on a bigger role in network operations.

Over the five-year partnership, the two organisations will work to anticipate network evolution, develop semantic communication technologies and applications, build shared semantic representations between AI models, and contribute to emerging standards in the field. CEA’s Grenoble team has built up expertise in semantic communications over several years, feeding into France’s Future Networks and France 6G programmes as well as international projects including 6G-GOALS, 6G-DISAC and 6GARROW. Orange, which counts close to 700 researchers and around 11,000 active patents, is separately involved in standards efforts such as SUSTAIN-6G, the Hexa-X initiatives, the NGMN Alliance and the Global IOWN Forum.

Lyse Brillouet, Orange’s executive vice president of research, said the lab underlines the operator’s push toward networks that are “smarter, more sustainable, and natively designed for AI,” tying the project to a wider sovereignty agenda for France and Europe. Etienvre said the collaboration was about positioning Europe to “design and influence technological standards” as intelligent networks take shape. RELATED STORIES SFR deal signals the end of France’s four-operator era Orange Wholesale CEO on defining a resilience-first telco vision Capacity Europe 2026 13 October 2026 The 24th anniversary edition of Capacity Europe 2025 will bring together 3,500+ decision-makers from the global connectivity and digital infrastructure community.