Know What's Happening in Telecom
Know What's Happening in Telecom
California launches $3.2B Middle‑Mile Broadband Network, Connecting Tribal and Rural Communities
The state’s Department of Technology has activated the $3.2 billion Middle‑Mile Broadband Initiative, the nation’s largest open‑access middle‑mile network. The first connection was made to the Bishop Paiute Tribe in Inyo County, marking the inaugural tribal customer. Governor Gavin Newsom aims to build 8,000 miles of fiber, with over 5,300 miles slated for completion by the end of 2026.
Contrivian, a California‑based managed connectivity provider, unveiled Contrivian Constellation, a bundled service that merges Amazon Leo and Starlink satellite networks under a single data plan, contract, and IP address. The system leverages the company’s Lighthouse technology to continuously evaluate both links and steer traffic to the higher‑performing network, eliminating traditional primary/secondary switch delays. Deployed via the portable, battery‑powered Horizon platform, the solution targets government agencies, emergency responders, and maritime enterprises operating in remote environments. By offering true multi‑network redundancy, Contrivian aims to mitigate outages that could jeopardize critical operations.
French regulator Arcep has opened a public consultation on the future of the wholesale digital terrestrial television (DTT) market as broadband delivery gains ground. The review examines DTT’s competitive position, minimum coverage obligations and the impact of rising IPTV and...
CML Micro debuted its satellite communications semiconductor portfolio at SATShow 2026 in Washington, D.C., showcasing GaAs and GaN RF and mmWave devices for Ku, K, and Ka‑band applications. The exhibit, held with distribution partner RFMW at Booth 1658, featured power amplifiers...
Apple’s C1X RF modem has reached performance parity with Qualcomm’s X80, according to Ookla data covering Q4 2025. The new modem delivers comparable median download speeds, latency, and edge‑cell throughput across most markets, narrowing the gap that previously favored Qualcomm. Tests...
Ericsson anticipates steady, incremental growth in India as the country moves from rapid 5G rollout to ongoing network upgrades. While coverage now exceeds 90% of the population, the vendor’s share of regional sales fell from 20% in 2023 to 12%...
One New Zealand completed the shutdown of its 2G and 3G networks on March 23, 2026, after delaying the 3G phase-out from an original 2024 target. The freed spectrum will be repurposed to strengthen the carrier’s 4G and 5G services. Over the...
Virgin Media is extending its smart‑support broadband service to its entire customer base at no additional charge. The 24/7 diagnostics platform continuously monitors speed and connectivity, enabling the company to identify and often resolve issues before they affect users. In...
Zayo Europe will supply Tier‑1 fibre connectivity to QTS’s new AI‑focused data centre in Cambois, Northumberland. The campus will host up to 720 MW of AI‑ready infrastructure and integrate with Zayo’s pan‑UK network linking major cities and trans‑Atlantic routes. A £110 million...
Claro Ecuador, part of América Móvil, has extended its 5G network to the cities of Cuenca and Salinas, following earlier launches in Guayaquil, Quito, Puerto Ayora and Coca at the end of 2025. The expansion is a key step toward the carrier’s...
Russian telecom operator Megafon launched an automatic top‑up service that lets users replenish the credit of up to five mobile lines in a single, recurring transaction. The feature works across Megafon’s own network and other Russian operators, with no commission...
Major League Baseball will use T‑Mobile’s private 5G networks to power its Automated Ball‑Strike (ABS) challenge system for the 2024 season. The operator has deployed the network across all 30 stadiums, enabling high‑speed transmission of Hawk‑Eye camera data to verify...
The 5G Automotive Association (5GAA) has extended its partnership with the EU’s 6G Smart Networks and Services Industry Association (6G‑IA) by renewing a 5G‑focused memorandum of understanding first signed in August 2022. The renewed MoU emphasizes policy coordination in vehicle‑to‑everything (V2X)...
Orange Spain announced that its 5G network now covers 286 municipalities in the Extremadura region, giving high‑speed mobile connectivity to seven out of ten small towns by early 2026. The rollout includes 71 villages with fewer than 500 residents, underscoring...
Yas Togo and Moov Africa Togo have secured the first and second spots in nPerf’s 2025 mobile‑internet quality rankings for the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU). The rankings, released by Togo’s telecom regulator ARCEP, confirm Togo as the...
Spain’s anti‑piracy crackdown, led by LaLiga, relies on IP‑blocking to stop illegal football streams. Movistar’s implementation on March 22 blocked about 145 IP addresses, including those of major cloud providers, causing widespread service outages that persisted into the following morning. The...
Vodafone Italia announced that, beginning 30 April, selected prepaid mobile plans will see monthly price increases ranging from €0.95 to €3.99. The adjustments affect a subset of its prepaid portfolio and are presented as necessary to sustain network quality and service...
The real reason Huawei got banned? It wasn’t weakness. It was strength. I’ve been following this space for years, and what struck me is how quickly the narrative shifted. Huawei didn’t rise quietly. It built some of the most advanced telecom infrastructure and 5G...
Singtel experienced a fresh Internet service disruption on March 23, with over 9,700 user reports logged on Downdetector within a few hours. Roughly half of the complaints involved broadband connections and about a third concerned mobile Internet. The company identified...
A subsea cable fault between Evie and Westray has been declared a major incident, cutting broadband for several hundred residents and businesses across Westray, Sanday, Stronsay and other northern Orkney islands. Openreach says repairs will require a specialist cable ship...
India’s telecom regulator TRAI has proposed cutting spectrum reserve prices by up to 40 % for the upcoming auction, setting a total reserve price of 2.1 trillion rupees for more than 11,700 MHz across nine bands. Past auctions have left most spectrum unsold...
Airtel has added more than 2,750 new 5G sites across Gujarat over the past year, expanding its footprint to 36 districts and reaching over 41 million users. The rollout, averaging eight sites per day, targets both urban hubs like Ahmedabad and...
Freedom Telecom Kazakhstan is accelerating broadband rollout by deploying fixed wireless access (FWA) across the steppe, leveraging rare n79 spectrum to deliver up to 3 Gbps speeds. The company’s initial ROI horizon has shrunk from a seven‑year payback to roughly six‑and‑a‑half...
NBN Co, together with Nokia, successfully trialled three generations of optical technology—GPON, XG‑SPON and 50‑GPON—on its FTTP network, achieving more than 230 Gbps and demonstrating a path toward terabit‑scale rates. The trial coincides with a 13‑14% year‑on‑year rise in average monthly...
TechRepublic’s 2026 guide ranks the top VoIP routers for businesses, highlighting the Asus RT‑AX88U Pro as the overall winner and the TP‑Link ER605 as the budget‑friendly small‑business option. The list also features the Nighthawk Tri‑Band Wi‑Fi 6E for large offices, the...
In this episode Roger Antner and Don Kellogg examine how network infrastructure shapes competition, coining metaphors like fiber "castles," cable "forts," FWA "camps," and satellite "warbands." They show that carriers with dense fiber footprints—AT&T and Verizon in the Northeast—gain customers,...
Omani low‑cost carrier SalamAir has teamed up with UK travel‑tech firm Arcube to embed eSIM and e‑Visa services into its booking platform. The eSIM solution gives travelers access to more than 5,000 data packages in over 213 countries, while the...
Samsung announced that its Quick Share feature will support Apple’s AirDrop on the newly launched Galaxy S26 series, beginning in South Korea on March 23 and rolling out to the United States later that week. The move follows Google’s earlier...
The re-Post Officication of telecoms was not something I expected to read this morning: Poste Italiane launches €10.8bn bid for Telecom Italia via @FT https://t.co/gR3vmnrlkX
Ulysses Management disclosed a full exit from Cogent Communications, selling 335,982 shares and realizing a $12.88 million loss. The move comes as Cogent’s share price has fallen 74% over the past twelve months, underscoring growing investor skepticism toward telecom‑infrastructure equities.
Arista Networks announced at the Morgan Stanley TMT conference that it is accelerating AI‑focused networking solutions, expanding its total addressable market from $60 billion to $105 billion. The company projects revenue to top $10 billion this year, up from $9 billion last year, driven...
Trump administration wants 6G phones even before 6G comes into existence • The US government wants to showcase its 6G capabilities at the 2028 Olympics in LA. • The Trump administration has asked Qualcomm to steer the development of three 6G-ready...
Vodafone Idea (Vi) has revamped its entry‑level Unlimited 5G prepaid plan, keeping the price at roughly Rs 349 (about $4.20) while adding night‑time data, weekend rollover and 2 GB of backup data. The 28‑day offering includes 1.5 GB daily data, unlimited calls, 100...
The Indian government has instructed WhatsApp to block device IDs linked to digital arrest scams and retain user data for 180 days. The move comes as authorities crack down on fraud schemes exploiting the platform, while the telecom sector grapples...
Huawei has launched the WiFi Mesh X3 Pro, the world’s first Wi‑Fi 7 router featuring a metal‑mesh crystal antenna and a glowing ornamental design. The device incorporates a shark‑fin heat‑exhaust system, dual 2.5 Gbps Ethernet ports, and advanced Wi‑Fi 7 features such as...
Ralph Dommermuth, CEO of United Internet and 1&1, dismissed rumors of a sale to Telefónica, confirming the firm’s commitment to its own fourth mobile network in Germany. By the end of 2025 the network reached roughly 27 percent of households, with...
Since early March, Moscow’s 13 million residents have endured unprecedented mobile internet and cellular service outages, while Wi‑Fi remains functional. The Russian government attributes the restrictions to “security” concerns amid sophisticated Ukrainian cyber attacks, echoing similar blackouts in border regions and...
In this episode, hosts Anshul Saag and Mike Dano dissect NVIDIA's new AI Grid for telecom, Bell's $1.7 billion AI factory in Saskatchewan, and the latest foldable market moves, notably OPPO's crease‑free Find N6 and Samsung's discontinuation of its high‑end trifold. They...
Conecta Infra announced a US$350 million investment to construct nearly 6,000 km of underground neutral fiber connecting major data‑center hubs in Brazil, Chile and Argentina. Backed by MissionCo and led by founder Rafael Pires, the network aims to meet soaring cloud and...
One phone plan. Three continents. Zero SIM swaps. I have been on Google Fi Wireless for a while now, and the experience keeps proving itself in situations where most plans fall apart. A road trip across the United States? Signal held the...
Iran’s government has imposed a nationwide internet blackout that began three weeks ago, coinciding with the Nowruz holiday. The shutdown blocks social media, messaging apps, VPNs and satellite connections, leaving over 90 million citizens unable to communicate with family. Travel restrictions...
Why do people deliberately conflate broadband (10M users) with DTC (aiming for 25M monthly users at the end of 2026)? Monthly DTC users (who use DTC on average 1-2 times per month and generate ~$1 ARPU) are not at all...
“Disasters always start and end locally.” - CNET I’ve seen firsthand how quickly demand surges in those moments. Resilient infrastructure matters. Prioritized network access supports public safety coordination — from SatCOWs to device support in Maui. https://t.co/LaXKDooUs0 @T_Priority Partner
AT&T announced that its legacy unlimited wireless plans will see price increases in April, with a $10 hike for single‑line accounts and up to $20 for multi‑line accounts. To soften the impact, the carrier is adding 20 GB of monthly hotspot...
This is way too high, but that's unsurprising since the starting point used for Starlink in 2025 ($14B+) is completely out of line with the known revenue for the year (<$12B)
"From now on, Hughes will shift its focus away from the B2C segment and concentrate on the corporate market, with a proposition centered on B2B services and technology provision." via DPL https://t.co/5URnm4DA6K
Motorola Solutions has filed an appeal demanding more than $200 million in restitution from Chinese telecom equipment maker Hytera Communications, arguing that the judge’s refusal to award compensation undervalues the damage from stolen walkie‑talkie technology. The appeal follows a criminal conviction...
AT&T rolls out new pricing: "AT&T has heard loud and clear that Americans have an affordability crisis." https://t.co/km3IOuTacU @FierceNetwork_ @malleven33 https://t.co/km3IOuTacU
Teledyne Technologies will showcase its end‑to‑end satellite communications portfolio at SATShow Week 2026 in Washington, DC, booth 2729. The exhibit features live demos of the EV10AS940 ADC employing non‑uniform sampling and a 16‑core radiation‑tolerant Arm Cortex‑A72 processor running real‑time AI...
SpaceX is intensifying its fight with incumbent satellite operators over proposed FCC rule changes that would raise power limits for low‑Earth‑orbit (LEO) broadband constellations in the 10.7‑12.7 GHz, 17.3‑18.6 GHz and 19.7‑20.2 GHz bands. The company contends that existing equivalent power flux density...
GoNetspeed announced a $4.5 million investment to deploy a 100% fiber‑optic network in Oneonta, New York, marking its first project in Otsego County. The rollout will deliver symmetric speeds from 500 Mbps up to six gigabits, promising multigigabit performance and higher reliability...
