Rogers Keepy-Ups 5G Game for FIFA World Cup
Rogers Communications is bolstering its 5G network for the upcoming FIFA World Cup, allocating CAD5 million ($3.6 million) to upgrades in Vancouver and planning CAD22 million ($15.9 million) for Toronto. The upgrades cover the BP Place stadium, fan zones, hotels and key transport hubs such as the SkyTrain and Pearson Airport. Rogers has logged roughly 7,000 planning hours and nearly 40,000 execution hours, adding extra 5G+ spectrum after a prior rollout for Taylor Swift’s 2024 Eras Tour. Mobile towers will be deployed in high‑traffic zones to handle the expected surge in data demand.
SFR Exclusive Sale Talk Period Extended
French telecom operator Altice France has extended the exclusive negotiation window for a potential sale of SFR to a consortium of Orange, Bouygues Telecom and Free‑Iliad until 5 June. The suitors, who entered talks in April, are evaluating a bid that...
The Friday File: US Operator JV; Nokia; Ericsson
U.S. carriers AT&T, T‑Mobile and Verizon announced a joint venture to deploy satellite‑based direct‑to‑device connectivity, aiming to fill coverage gaps in rural and underserved areas. Nokia appointed Siemens executive Emma Falck as president of its Mobile Infrastructure unit to accelerate...
Analysis: Verizon Digital Twin Changes How Operator Sees Itself
Verizon has completed a nation‑wide digital twin of its tens of thousands of cell sites, combining 3D models, drone‑captured imagery, and AI analytics. The system reduces storm‑damage assessments from several hours of manual climbs to roughly 15 minutes of automated...
SKT, South Korea Ministry Target Defence AI
SK Telecom (SKT) has signed a partnership with South Korea’s Ministry of National Defence to create sovereign AI models for military administration and operations. The collaboration will leverage SKT’s A.X family of large language models, GPU‑as‑a‑Service infrastructure, and defence data...
Nokia Secures End to Acer, Asus Licence Lawsuits
Nokia won a UK Court of Appeal ruling that permanently stayed lawsuits filed by Acer and Asus over a licensing dispute for its video coding patents. The court found Nokia had already offered the companies a fair, reasonable and non‑discriminatory...
Sateliot, Turkcell Verify 5G NTN Connections
Turkcell partnered with Sateliot to demonstrate non‑terrestrial 5G (NTN) connectivity for IoT devices, conducting live trials in Barcelona and Istanbul. The tests linked Sateliot’s low‑Earth‑orbit satellites with Turkcell’s terrestrial 5G network, achieving seamless integration and continuous device coverage beyond the...
Telenor Arranges Service Unit Succession
Telenor Group appointed Hanne Sannes‑Moe, formerly head of Nordea’s Daily Banking Services, as chief of its Shared Services (TSS) unit effective 1 August. The TSS operation supports more than 500 employees across the Nordics, Pakistan and Portugal, delivering unified, business‑critical systems...
EchoStar Wireless Additions Dwindle in Q1
EchoStar’s Boost Mobile added only 16,000 wireless subscribers in Q1, a sharp slowdown from the 150,000 gained a year earlier. The brand now serves 7.5 million customers with churn improving slightly to 2.7%. Wireless revenue was essentially flat at $962.5 million, while...
Telia Lets 5G Fly on Kelluu Airship
Finnish airship operator Kelluu, in partnership with Telia, demonstrated secure 5G connectivity from a hydrogen‑powered airship using a Nokia Kolibri small‑cell on the 3.5 GHz band. The low‑altitude platform, operating between 120 m and 1,000 m, can cover up to 30,000 km² with five...
SoftBank Mulls France AI Investment
SoftBank Group CEO Masayoshi Son is reportedly negotiating a major AI data‑centre investment in France, with figures floated as high as $100 billion. The proposal follows President Emmanuel Macron’s push for sovereign AI infrastructure, leveraging France’s nuclear‑powered electricity. The potential deal...
Space42, Skylo Plot D2D Service Launch
UAE‑based Space42 has signed a deal with Skylo Technologies to launch a direct‑to‑device (D2D) connectivity service that will extend its Thuraya‑4 satellite footprint across more than 37 countries. The offering uses Skylo’s non‑terrestrial network platform and a standards‑based architecture, allowing...
SoftBank Banks on DC Power Needs
SoftBank Corp announced plans to build a battery business at its Osaka Sakai AI Data Centre, targeting the growing demand for reliable DC power in data centres and industrial sites. The company will develop zinc‑halogen cells with Cosmos Lab and...
China Advances 6G Ambitions with 6GHz Trials
China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) has approved field trials for 6G technology in the 6 GHz band, a spectrum previously allocated for 5G and 6G in 2023. The move enables real‑world testing of ITU‑defined performance indicators across select...
Rakuten Symphony Inks Maritime Cybersecurity Pact
Rakuten Symphony, the Japanese telecom and digital services firm, has signed a memorandum of understanding with classification society American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) to build maritime cybersecurity capabilities. The deal pairs Rakuten Maritime’s cyber‑resilience platform—launched in December 2024—with ABS’s safety...
EC Grants Google Extra Time in DMA Probe
The European Commission granted Google an extension to address alleged Digital Markets Act breaches after its initial remediation proposals were judged inadequate. The regulator is pressing for structural reforms, including unbundling Search, YouTube and Chrome, revising app‑store rules, and ending...
Meta Takes on Canada, UK over Legal, Monetary Matters
Meta Platforms is simultaneously contesting regulatory moves in Canada and the United Kingdom. In Canada, the company warns that Bill C‑22’s provisions allowing broader access to electronic service data could erode privacy and undermine encryption, though it supports the bill’s...
The Friday File: VodafoneThree; Anthropic; Europe 5G
Vodafone agreed to a £4.3 billion ($5.5 billion) buyout of CK Hutchison’s 49% stake in VodafoneThree, giving it full control of the UK operator. Anthropic signed a massive compute agreement with SpaceX, securing over 300 MW of power and 220,000 Nvidia GPUs at...
Airtel Africa Puts Brakes on IPO Due to Iran War
Airtel Africa announced that its planned IPO of the Airtel Money unit will be postponed to the second half of 2026, citing market volatility triggered by the Iran‑Israel conflict. The company still aims to raise between $1.5 billion and $2 billion, which...
Inseego Hires Product Chief to Steer Nokia Integration
Inseego has hired Koroush Saraf as chief product officer to drive product strategy and oversee the integration of Nokia’s fixed wireless access (FWA) customer‑premises equipment business. Saraf arrives from senior product roles at Fortinet, Palo Alto Networks and ZPE Systems,...
BT Scores UEFA Deal; Reintroduces BT Mobile in Brand Revamp
BT Group secured the official telecom partnership for the UEFA Euro 2028 tournament in the UK and Ireland, pledging to power broadcasts, stadium connectivity and public screenings. The network will serve nine stadiums, 24 team base camps and support eSIM...
Optus, Ericsson Claim SA 5G Aggregation First
Optus and Ericsson have demonstrated a world‑first 180 MHz standalone (SA) 5G carrier‑aggregation trial on a live commercial network at Optus’s Sydney campus, combining 900 MHz, 2.1 GHz, 2.3 GHz and 3.5 GHz bands. The test, run on Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra devices, recorded peak downlink speeds...
Verizon Uses Network Digital Twin to Weather Storms
Verizon unveiled a network‑wide digital twin that leverages drone‑captured 3D imagery and AI to instantly locate storm damage on its 4G, 5G and core infrastructure. The system compares post‑storm scans with baseline models, allowing engineers to prioritize repairs and dramatically...
China Sweeps up $1.7B of Robot Exports
China reported robot exports worth CNY 11.3 billion (about $1.7 billion) in the first quarter of 2026, shipping to 148 countries and regions. Cleaning robots dominated the mix with CNY 7.6 billion ($1.1 billion) in sales, while industrial variants contributed CNY 3.2 billion ($450 million). The government highlighted a...
Samsung, Qualcomm Claim 5G FWA vRAN First
Samsung Electronics and Qualcomm Technologies validated 5G Power Class 1 (PC1) for fixed wireless access (FWA) on a virtualized RAN, claiming the first industry demonstration of high‑power device transmission combined with a fully software‑driven network. Using Samsung’s vRAN stack, 3.7 GHz massive...
Preview: How M360 LATAM Connects a Digital Future
M360 LATAM returns to Mexico City, co‑located with the 13th Latin American Congress on Digital Transformation (CLTD). The event features GSMA’s Vivek Badrinath delivering the opening keynote and introduces the rebranded GLOMO LATAM Awards. Discussions focus on 5G use cases,...
Microsoft, Google, xAI Tackle US AI Security
Microsoft announced testing and evaluation agreements with the U.S. and U.K. governments, extending the pact to include Google DeepMind and Elon Musk’s xAI. The deals channel the AI Security Institute and the U.S. Centre for AI Standards and Innovation (CAISI)...
Telenor Forms Standalone Nordic Sovereign Cloud Unit
Telenor announced the creation of Telenor Sovereign Cloud, a standalone Norwegian cloud company housed within its Infrastructure unit. The service will run from nationally controlled data centres, keeping all data under Norwegian jurisdiction and complying with strict security legislation. Targeting...
Cloud Spend Crosses $500B Run Rate Due to AI Surge
Synergy Research Group reports global enterprise cloud infrastructure spending topped a $500 billion annualized run rate in Q1 2026, driven by a surge in generative AI demand. Quarterly revenue reached $128.6 billion, a 35% year‑on‑year increase and the fastest growth since late‑2021. Amazon...
The Friday File: OpenAI; Samsung; Nokia
OpenAI announced it is ending its exclusive partnership with Microsoft, allowing its models to be sold on rival clouds such as AWS and Google Cloud while keeping Microsoft as its primary Azure partner through 2032. Samsung Electronics reported a historic...
Vistance Offloads Ruckus Networks in $1.9B Deal
Vistance Networks has agreed to sell its Ruckus Networks unit to Belden for $1.85 billion, with an expected net cash receipt of about $1.7 billion after taxes and expenses. The transaction, slated to close in the second half of 2026, will free...
FCC Updates Satellite Rules to Boost Broadband Capacity
The FCC voted unanimously to replace the outdated Equivalent Power Flux Density (EPFD) limits with a performance‑based protection framework for geostationary and non‑geostationary satellites. The new rules could boost usable broadband capacity by up to seven times, delivering an estimated...
Apple Sets Q2 Record Despite iPhone Supply Chain Issues
Apple reported a record $111.1 billion Q2 revenue, up 17% YoY, driven by strong iPhone 17 sales despite supply‑chain constraints on advanced‑node chips. iPhone revenue reached $56.9 billion, while Greater China posted a 28% jump to $20.4 billion, beating forecasts. Services hit an...
Station Satcom Ups Eutelsat LEO Maritime Use
Eutelsat’s OneWeb unit has inked a multi‑million‑dollar agreement with India‑based Station Satcom to extend low‑Earth‑orbit (LEO) satellite broadband to up to 1,000 additional vessels. The deal builds on a 2025 contract that already covers hundreds of ships, creating a sizable...
Accenture Leads Round in Agentic AI Specialist Netomi
Accenture led a $110 million funding round for Netomi, an agentic AI specialist, to embed its conversational AI into Accenture’s customer‑experience suite. Netomi’s technology enables code‑free, multi‑step AI agents that predict customer needs and execute actions, enhancing support interactions. Accenture’s Song...
Mosaic SoC Secures Funding for Spatial Wearable Push
Swiss semiconductor startup Mosaic SoC announced a $3.8 million pre‑seed round led by Founderful and the Kick Foundation. The funding will accelerate development of a proprietary multi‑core chip designed to handle visual and positional sensor data without relying on power‑hungry GPUs....
China Tech Giants Race to Secure Huawei AI Chips
Chinese tech powerhouses ByteDance, Tencent and Alibaba are scrambling to secure Huawei's Ascend 950 AI chips after the debut of DeepSeek's V4 model, which is tuned specifically for Huawei silicon. Cloud providers and GPU‑rental services have also placed fresh orders,...
Veon, Kyivstar Top $1B Ukraine Investment Target
Veon and its Ukrainian unit Kyivstar have invested $1.3 billion in connectivity, digital services and infrastructure in Ukraine through April 2026, exceeding the original $1 billion target. The programme, originally slated at $600 million over three years, was accelerated in 2024 to address...
Airtel Africa to Raise up to $2B in Money Unit IPO
Airtel Africa is preparing an IPO for its mobile‑money arm, Airtel Money, targeting a raise of $1.5‑$2 billion, with London the leading venue. The offering would value the unit at up to $10 billion. By the end of 2025 the service counted...
VMO2, Daisy Take Aim at B2B Complexity with O2 Business
O2 Daisy will rebrand as O2 Business, uniting VMO2’s network infrastructure with Daisy Group’s IT and communications expertise. The move aims to eliminate fragmentation and simplify technology choices for UK enterprises, a need highlighted by research showing 66% of business...
E& Pumps Cash Into Sovereign Security Start-Up
UAE telecom operator e& invested $10 million through its e& capital arm in MagicCube, a software start‑up focused on sovereign‑grade post‑quantum security for AI, digital identity and payments. The round also includes payments‑technology firm Verifone and investors Bold Capital Partners and Mosaik...
China Watchdog Warns ByteDance on AI Tags
China’s Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) has formally warned ByteDance for failing to label AI‑generated content on its Jianying and Maoxiang video editors and the Jimeng AI website. The regulator said the platforms breached national cybersecurity rules that mandate conspicuous...
Nokia, Partners Push Hybrid AI Approach in APAC
Indonesia‑based Datacomm Diangraha, Nokia and AI‑computing specialist Blaize have signed a deal to build a hybrid AI inference stack for the APAC region. Nokia will provide GPU‑intensive backbone infrastructure, while Blaize supplies energy‑efficient edge inference platforms, and Datacomm contributes local...
Freshwave Makes UK Flight Connection
Freshwave has activated a 4G neutral‑host network across an 85,000‑square‑foot extension at Leeds Bradford Airport, providing consumer Wi‑Fi and push‑to‑talk staff connectivity. The deployment will soon expand by another 44,000 sq ft to include security zones, completing coverage of the new three‑storey terminal....
EE Beats Target to Cross 50M Mark with 5G+
EE, the mobile arm of BT Group, has expanded its 5G+ network to cover more than 50 million people—surpassing its 41 million target for spring 2026. The rollout is part of BT’s £40 billion (≈$51 billion) investment in UK network infrastructure through 2030 and now...
Vodafone Rides on Time to Boost 5G-A
Vodafone Group announced a breakthrough in network time‑keeping, achieving 40 nanosecond accuracy through a fibre‑based system developed with the UK’s National Physical Laboratory. The solution is positioned as a solid substitute for satellite‑based timing, helping meet the stringent frequency guidelines of...
SoftBank Constructs AI, IoT Tie-Up with Mode
SoftBank Corp and IoT platform provider Mode announced a partnership that merges Mode’s data‑integration BizStack with SoftBank’s generative AI, cloud and communications suite for manufacturing and construction. The alliance seeks to dissolve on‑site data silos, creating a secure, sovereign environment...
Singtel, Mistral AI Plot GPU, AIaaS Move
Singtel’s Digital InfraCo unit has teamed up with French AI firm Mistral AI to launch a sovereign‑level AI‑as‑a‑Service platform. The collaboration blends Singtel’s RE:AI multi‑tenant GPU infrastructure with Mistral’s open‑source software stack, aiming at finance, defence, government services and healthcare....
Verizon Adds Slicing on SA 5G Devices for First Responders
Verizon has expanded its Frontline Network Slice to any 5G standalone (SA) laptop, tablet or smartphone used by first responders, guaranteeing dedicated bandwidth and low latency even in crowded environments. Access requires devices that support SA‑5G, prompting agencies to upgrade...
China to Tighten Rules on US Tech Investment
Chinese regulators, led by the National Development and Reform Commission, are set to require government approval for any U.S. investment in sensitive technology firms, including AI startups. Private tech companies have been instructed to reject U.S.-linked capital in funding rounds...