EU Backbone Deal, EVgo 750 kW Delay and Manila Charging Budget

The European Union's plan to wire its public administrations together now has a named operator. On 29 September, Orange Business was selected as the trusted network partner for TESTA-EIRIS (Enhanced Infrastructure for Reliable Interconnectivity and Security), the private communications backbone that will connect EU institutions, bodies, agencies and member states, according to a press release carried by Light Reading.

The contract covers a Layer 2 / Layer 3 backbone built on at least 12 Points of Presence across five European regions, with Orange Business stating the architecture targets 99.999% availability. Orange will work with the European Commission's Directorate-General for Digital Services (DG DIGIT), the department designing and managing the ecosystem. Its Evolution Platform, described as an AI-first connectivity platform, will replace dedicated hardware with software-based virtual services.

Why the timing matters

The same week, GTT Communications launched GTT Defense Halo, an AI-native network defense platform it says is deployed as a dedicated instance per customer and hosted in the US, UK and EU to meet sovereignty requirements, Light Reading reported on 29 September. GTT says the platform generates a stateful, real-time model of a customer's network and produces AI-generated remediation plans. The company cites an open letter published in late August, signed by more than 100 technology, cybersecurity and financial services companies, warning that AI-enabled cyberattacks are becoming more widespread. Both announcements point at the same procurement logic: European institutions and large enterprises are buying sovereign, private infrastructure rather than public cloud capacity. That matters for charging networks because they increasingly run on the same backbone and security assumptions.

Charging infrastructure in Europe, meanwhile, is entering a different phase. The EU public charging network reached 1.1 million chargers by the end of 2025, according to Transport & Environment, which published its position on the revision of the Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Regulation (AFIR) on 28 September. T&E, which authored the piece republished by CleanTechnica, argues that AFIR should now shift from counting chargers to policing their quality, price and comparability.

The group wants public charging prices standardised into three components: the charging price in euros per kWh, a standardised idle or overstay fee that applies once charging ends, and any roaming or other commercial fees charged by mobility service providers. It also wants all price components displayed before charging starts, ad-hoc prices clearly indicated, subscription-free standard card payments at all physical public chargers, and public charging data centralised through the Common European Access Point (CEAP).

The EU public charging network reached record levels with 1.1 million chargers deployed by the end 2025 and with EU countries on their way to meet or exceed AFIR targets, T&E wrote, citing its own EV charging dashboard.

That is a policy fight about margins. Charging point operators and roaming intermediaries make money on the spread between the base ad-hoc price and what a driver actually pays, and T&E wants that spread visible at the connector. National regulators would get EU-level indicators and regular monitoring of public charging prices to separate normal market variation from pricing differences that need closer scrutiny.

Hardware slips, budgets rise

On the equipment side, the wait got longer. EVgo previewed a DC fast charging system capable of delivering up to 750 kW, sharing power among stalls and adjusting delivery as each vehicle's battery needs change. Electrek reported on 29 September that EVgo is developing and testing the chargers at its Innovation Lab in El Segundo, California, with support from Delta Electronics, and that each station will use a NACS connector with easier-to-handle cables and touchless payment. EVgo claims the system could charge the fastest-charging EVs currently sold in the US in around 10 minutes. It has not specified the battery percentage range behind that estimate, and Electrek notes that actual charging speed depends on the vehicle, battery temperature and state of charge. Deployment is now expected in 2027, later than the H2 2026 rollout EVgo projected when it announced its work with Delta in 2024.

The delay is a reminder that nameplate kilowatts are not the same as delivered kilowatts. The real test, as Electrek points out, comes when several EVs plug in at once and the system has to decide how much power each gets.

In Asia, governments are still funding the build-out directly. The Philippine Department of Budget and Management has proposed P228.92 million ($3.71 million) for the Electric Vehicle Industry Development Program under the 2027 National Expenditure Program, up from P32.46 million ($526,000) appropriated in 2026, CleanTechnica reported on 29 September. Department of Energy data cited by CleanTechnica show 66,685 electrified vehicles sold from January through August, 24.7% of an estimated 270,124 total vehicle sales. That headline number covers hybrids, plug-in hybrids and battery-electric vehicles: 16,320 battery-electric, 29,649 plug-in hybrid and 20,716 hybrid.

The new money targets two things: charging facilities at selected government offices under the EVision Project, and an EV charging-system testing facility for the DOE. The testing capability matters because the market is fragmenting: the DOE had accredited 422 EV charging station providers by 31 August 2026, while registered charging stations nationwide reached 1,876.

The government's Comprehensive Roadmap for the Electric Vehicle Industry calls for at least 7,300 charging stations between 2023 and 2028 under its business-as-usual scenario, with a more aggressive scenario of 66,500. At 1,876 registered stations, the country has reached roughly a quarter of the lower target. The DOE has been drafting rules on installation, operation and accreditation under the Electric Vehicle Industry Development Act, plus guidelines on which public and private establishments must install chargers.

That is the part European operators will recognise. A charger is not a socket on a wall: it is a grid connection, a standards compliance file and an operations contract. T&E's push for price transparency and the Philippine testing facility are two answers to the same problem, one regulatory and one technical.

Security sits underneath both. Dutch authorities confirmed the arrest of a 24-year-old Amsterdam man in connection with the ShinyHunters group, according to a statement from the Politie Landelijke Opsporing en Interventies quoted by The Hacker News on 29 September. Police said he was expected to appear before the Rotterdam District Court on 29 September 2026. Independent journalist Brian Krebs and DataBreaches.Net identified the man as Pepijn van der Stap, who was previously apprehended in 2023, and who is listed on LinkedIn as offensive security lead at Neo Security.

ShinyHunters denied any connection. "That individual has no association with us. Frankly, we are laughing," the group told The Hacker News, adding that Dutch police were chasing attention after the Odido hack. The group also told 404 Media that its claimed breach of the FBI's job application site was a marketing campaign rather than extortion. Those claims are contested and should be treated as the group's own account.

For anyone building charging infrastructure, the lesson is unglamorous. Payment terminals, roaming APIs and back-office systems are network endpoints, and a compromised endpoint in a charging network has a physical consequence. The EU's new backbone contract, the AFIR price rules, EVgo's slipping hardware and Manila's testing lab are all variations on the same question: who verifies that the thing works, and who is accountable when it does not.