Orange, as France’s largest telco, was always going to be slightly queasy about its strategic relationship with Google Cloud over edge compute, AI and cybersecurity, which began in July 2020. Orange shares the French ambivalence about US big technology, wary of its intrusion and competitive threat, yet fearing being left behind through to failure to match peers in other countries exploiting the cutting-edge tools and capabilities. There is also the background of the European Union’s ongoing legal battles with Google, which has only just launched an appeal to overturn a $5bn antitrust fine imposed by the EU. Google is contending that Android for mobile devices has boosted competition rather than curtailed it. The EU had earlier concluded that companies manufacturing and distributing Android phones…