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 wartime challenges. Investments span mobile and fibre network expansion, direct‑to‑device Starlink satellite rollout, and extensive backup‑power solutions. Kyivstar also broadened its portfolio with a taxi‑app purchase, a digital‑health platform and a solar‑energy firm.
China Threatens the EU with Broad Retaliation if Huawei and ZTE Are Banned From European Networks
China’s Ministry of Commerce submitted a 30‑page warning to the European Commission, saying the EU’s draft Cybersecurity Act – which would make the removal of high‑risk vendors like Huawei and ZTE mandatory – could trigger reciprocal trade restrictions on European...
Starlink D2D Use Is Less than Expected, Says T-Mobile
T‑Mobile disclosed that its T‑Satellite direct‑to‑device service, built on Starlink Mobile’s 650‑satellite LEO constellation, is seeing far lower usage than anticipated, with most activity limited to national parks. The carrier ruled out an MVNO partnership with Starlink, saying it would...
Cyprus Delays DVB-T2 Switchover to July 1
Cyprus has postponed its digital terrestrial television upgrade to the DVB‑T2 standard, setting a new switchover date of July 1, two months later than originally planned. The Deputy Ministry of Research, Innovation and Digital Policy cited minor technical glitches and a...
Why the Grain Management Spectrum Swap with T-Mobile Deserves a Closer Look
The FCC is reviewing Grain Management’s swap of its 800 MHz low‑band licenses for T‑Mobile’s 600 MHz spectrum. Grain, a private‑equity‑backed buyer, has no wireless build‑out history and proposes using the 800 MHz band for satellite‑to‑device service, a use that does not meet...
What's New About Cisco's Sovereign Infrastructure Push?
Cisco has launched a suite of networking solutions specifically engineered for sovereign critical infrastructure across the entire EMEA region. The offering, branded as "sovereign‑ready," bundles hardware, software and security services that comply with local data‑sovereignty regulations. Cisco positions the portfolio...
IBM CEO Arvind Krishna on His First Job and the Lessons He Learned From It
Arvind Krishna recounts his early IBM Research role, where graduate work on cyclic codes unexpectedly became the technical basis for Wi‑Fi. The breakthrough illustrated that curiosity can yield future‑critical patents, but the technology alone stalled until IBM’s product team recognized...
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...
Reliance Jio’s Cricket Packs Are Cheaper Per Day, But There Is a Catch
Reliance Jio has rolled out a suite of cricket‑focused data packs that cost as little as Rs 49 (≈$0.60) for 25 GB usable for a single day, with per‑day rates dropping to roughly Rs 2.6 (≈$0.03). Each pack bundles JioHotstar access, turning a...
Synamedia and Telxius Enable Content Providers to Switch Between CDNs in Real Time
Synamedia and Telxius have integrated Telxius’s carrier‑grade CDN into the Quortex Switch multi‑CDN management platform. The partnership allows content providers to switch viewers between CDNs in real time based on quality of experience and cost, expanding coverage and improving reliability....
Satellite Connected Cattle Collars Expand Remote Ranching
Halter, a Colorado ag‑tech firm, has launched satellite‑connected cattle collars that link directly to Starlink, removing the need for cellular or on‑site radio infrastructure. The solar‑powered, GPS‑enabled devices enable virtual fencing across remote terrain, expanding the addressable U.S. beef cattle...
Jio IPO May Slip to H2 FY27 on Geopolitical Risks: CreditSights
Reliance Industries’ plan to list its digital arm Jio Platforms faces a timing setback, with CreditSights warning that the Middle East conflict could push the IPO into the second half of fiscal 2027. Earlier speculation of a May debut and...
Spam Menace: Telcos, Internet Cos Clash over Views to Regulate OTTs
India’s major telecom operators have asked the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) to bring third‑party IP apps and over‑the‑top (OTT) communication platforms under the same anti‑spam rules that govern SMS and voice. They argue that stricter SMS regulations are...
T-Mobile Expands Fiber Broadband with $2.7 Bn Joint Ventures to Reach over 1 Mn New Homes
T‑Mobile announced two 50:50 fiber joint ventures worth roughly $2.7 billion, partnering with Oak Hill Capital and Wren House to acquire GoNetspeed, Greenlight Networks, and i3 Broadband. The Oak Hill deal will add a platform covering over 1.3 million homes in the...
Cornerstone Plans 65-Foot 5G Mast In York
Cornerstone Telecoms has submitted a planning application to erect a 65‑foot 5G mast on Hospital Fields Road in York, replacing a previously rejected 57‑foot proposal. The monopole will carry nine antennas, three equipment cabinets, and six remote radio units to...
Telcos Ignore Court Order as Airtime Credit Stays Suspended
Nigeria’s three largest telcos have defied a Federal High Court order, keeping digital airtime credit services offline amid a regulatory tug‑of‑war between the FCCPC and the NCC. The suspension affects a market that generates roughly $500 million a year, with MT Nigeria’s...
Scaling AI Data Centers Through Optical Networking>
AI data centers are hitting a wiring bottleneck as copper interconnects cannot sustain the massive, high‑speed traffic between thousands of AI chips. Optical networking, which transmits data as light through fiber, offers far lower latency, power consumption, and distance limitations....
Eutelsat “US Demand Is Resiliant”
Eutelsat CEO Jean‑François Fallacher pushed back against SpaceX’s call for the FCC to limit non‑U.S. satellite capacity, asserting that demand from U.S. customers remains resilient. SpaceX’s April 16 letter warned that European operators like SES benefit from U.S. market access and...
Data: Starlink’s Airline Connection Speeds Rise
SpaceX’s Starlink now commands 47.8% of commercial inflight connectivity traffic in Q4 2025, according to Ookla measurements, outpacing Viasat (25.1%) and Panasonic Avionics (12.8%). The LEO‑based service delivers over‑90% speed consistency for airlines such as airBaltic, WestJet and Hawaiian, while its...
Report: UK the World’s Third-Largest D2D Market in March
Virgin Media O2’s February launch of O2 Satellite propelled the United Kingdom into the global spotlight, making it the world’s third‑largest direct‑to‑device (D2D) market by unique‑user count as of March 2026. The UK trails only the United States and Australia in...
Router (Home Network): OWE Authentication Question
A home‑network user in NYC noticed their router reporting OWE (Opportunistic Wireless Encryption) instead of the expected WPA2. The moderator explained that when a router is set to WPA3/WPA2 mode it operates in an OWE transition mode, causing compatible devices...
T-Mobile Surges, Adding More Than 500,000 5G Home Internet & Fiber Customers in Q1 2026 As Comcast & Spectrum Lose...
T‑Mobile reported a record‑breaking first quarter, adding more than 500,000 net broadband customers, driven largely by its 5G Home Internet and expanding fiber footprint. Service revenue jumped 11% to $18.8 billion and adjusted EBITDA rose 12% to $9.24 billion, prompting the company...
CEO of MCNC Joins Beyond the Cable at Connected America
Tracy Doaks, president and CEO of MCNC, spoke at the Connected America 2026 expo about the nonprofit’s North Carolina Research and Education Network, which delivers high‑speed connectivity to smaller, mid‑size and minority research institutions. She highlighted MCNC’s role as a...
US Spectrum Shuffle Could Earn SES Billions
SES CEO Adel Al‑Saleh met FCC Chairman Brendan Carr to discuss a new C‑band spectrum reallocation aimed at U.S. cellular operators. The FCC’s plan could net SES between $1.5 billion and $3.4 billion, far less than the $8.7 billion it earned in the...
People
Justin Faulb, after a decade at the Federal Communications Commission, has been appointed senior vice president, Policy and General Counsel at NTCA—The Rural Broadband Association, effective May 11. At the FCC, Faulb served as chief of staff and legal advisor...
Using NVIDIA Aerial CUDA-Accelerated RAN on Red Hat OpenShift to Accelerate Development of AI-Native 5G and 6G RAN Solutions
Red Hat demonstrated NVIDIA Aerial CUDA‑Accelerated RAN running on OpenShift, using an NVIDIA GH200 Grace Hopper Superchip and ConnectX‑7 NIC in a single‑node edge configuration. The open‑source stack enables AI‑native 5G/6G development with zero‑touch GitOps provisioning and GPU‑accelerated PHY performance....
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Virgin Atlantic Accelerates Starlink Rollout with Free High-Speed Wi-Fi Across Fleet
Virgin Atlantic is accelerating its rollout of SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet, beginning installations on its A350 fleet in May with full A350 coverage expected by early summer. The airline will extend the free, high‑speed Wi‑Fi to its 787 and A330neo...
T-Mobile Adds More Than 500,000 Broadband Subs
T‑Mobile added more than 500,000 broadband subscribers in Q1 2026 across fixed‑wireless and fiber, CEO Srini Gopalan announced. Fixed‑wireless net additions accelerated, bringing the base to 8.45 million and targeting 15 million by 2030. Post‑paid accounts grew 217,000 with an ARPA of...
Sertex Takes Aim at Digital Gaps in some Western Mass. Towns
Sertex Broadband Solutions announced two master service agreements to expand fiber broadband across Western Massachusetts. The company will install more than 1,000 underground service drops in towns such as Greenfield, Heath, Chesterfield and Westfield, using Westfield Gas & Electric’s Whip...
AT&T Extends Home Internet Savings With $25 Off Internet Air for Eligible Customers
AT&T has expanded its Access program, offering eligible low‑income households a $25 monthly discount on its Internet Air 5G home broadband service. Internet Air is a plug‑and‑play solution that can be installed in about 15 minutes and now benefits from...
Brightspeed Is Two-Thirds Done with Their Alabama Fiber Build
Brightspeed announced that more than two‑thirds of its planned fiber network in Alabama is complete, covering over 165,000 homes and businesses. The rollout leaves roughly 86,000 locations still pending construction, with the company citing a 65% completion rate across the...
Amazon Accelerates Its New Home Internet Ambitions as It Launches 29 New Satellites
Amazon’s Leo constellation added 29 new low‑Earth‑orbit satellites, bringing the total launched by United Launch Alliance to 168. The expanded network moves the company closer to a summer 2026 launch of its direct‑to‑home broadband service aimed at underserved areas. Leo’s...
Grain Aiming to Lease Direct-to-Device Spectrum 90 Days After Deal Closing
Investment firm Grain Management plans to lease the 800 MHz low‑band spectrum it bought from T‑Mobile for $2.9 billion to satellite operators within 90 days, pending FCC approval. Grain met with FCC Chair Brendan Carr and senior advisor Arpan Sura to outline...
IMS2026 Returns to Boston with Newly Structured RF and Microwave Engineering Technical Program
The IEEE International MTT Symposia will return to Boston from June 7‑12, 2026 with a newly organized technical program. The event is split into three coordinated symposia—RF Integrated Circuits, RF Systems & Applications, and RF Technology & Techniques—each targeting a specific stage...
Catalina Island Subsea Cable Project Enters Survey Phase
AVX Networks has moved its Catalina Island high‑speed internet project into the marine survey phase, a key step toward laying a subsea fiber‑optic cable between Avalon and Huntington Beach. The effort is funded by a $37.5 million grant from the California...
Capito Bill Tightens FCC Vetting of Broadband Providers
Congress approved the Rural Broadband Protection Act of 2025, directing the FCC to vet broadband providers before awarding high‑cost universal service funds. The FCC must issue a rulemaking within 180 days requiring applicants to demonstrate technical, financial and operational capability...
Beyond Connectivity: How Submarine Cable Resilience Dictates Digital Sovereignty in the Age of Fragmented Governance
Submarine cables, spanning more than 1.4 million km, carry over 99 % of intercontinental data traffic, making them the hidden backbone of the digital economy. Ownership is consolidating among a few hyperscalers—Google, Meta, Microsoft and Amazon—shifting digital sovereignty from nation‑state contests to...
State Broadband Merger Limps Into a Second Decade
The state‑owned Broadband Infraco (BBI) and signal distributor Sentech have seen their merger pushed to the 2028/29 financial year, marking the third major timeline shift since approval in 2017. BBI has posted consecutive losses since 2019, been declared technically insolvent,...
NBTC Backs Google-Linked Subsea Cable Project
Thailand’s telecom regulator, the NBTC, approved the TalayLink subsea cable project that links Google Cloud with the country’s network. The 300‑kilometre conduit will house 11 separate fiber lines and land on Thailand’s coast, extending to Australia’s Christmas Island. The approval...
AI, Connectivity Demands Make Next-Gen Wi-Fi a Priority for More Building Operators
Cisco’s 2026 State of Wireless survey of over 6,000 professionals shows AI‑driven connectivity demands are pushing building operators to replace legacy Wi‑Fi with next‑generation standards. More than three‑quarters of respondents are already deploying or planning Wi‑Fi 6E or 7, and 80%...
Cornelis Expands Global Partner Ecosystem to Accelerate High-Performance Networking for HPC and Data-Intensive Workloads
Cornelis announced the expansion of its global partner ecosystem, adding North American distributor ASI Corp. and federal integrators CTG Federal and TVAR Solutions. The move broadens access to the CN5000 400‑Gbps networking family, which promises sub‑1 µs latency, up to 800 M...
AT&T Vs. Verizon: How The Country’s Biggest Carriers Fared In Q1 2026
AT&T edged out Verizon in Q1 2026, delivering $31.51 billion in operating revenue, a 2.9% YoY increase, and adding 294,000 postpaid phone subscribers. Verizon posted $34.40 billion in revenue, also up 2.9% YoY, but missed estimates while gaining 55,000 postpaid net adds—the...
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....
Trai Extends Deadline for Comments on Mobile Plan without Data at Lower Price to May 5
India’s telecom regulator TRAI has extended the comment deadline for its draft amendment to May 5, a week beyond the original April 28 cut‑off. The proposal would obligate operators to offer voice‑and‑SMS‑only mobile plans at lower prices than current bundled tariffs that...
FS Launches D5110 16T Solutions for Automated DCI Deployment
FS unveiled two D5110‑based Data Center Interconnect (DCI) solutions that automate deployment and configuration for point‑to‑point optical links up to 120 km. The 100G solution uses a 4/8‑channel 1U platform delivering up to 800 G line capacity, while the 1G‑400G DWDM option...
Altair Semiconductor Spins Off From Sony to Focus on 5G IoT and eRedCap Strategy
Altair Semiconductor has completed a spin‑off from Sony Semiconductor Solutions, backed by $50 million in new funding led by Pitango Group. The independent company will double‑down on low‑power cellular IoT chipsets and a 5G eRedCap roadmap, highlighted by the upcoming ALT1550...
AI Data Bursts Force Rethink of Data Center Networking at Backblaze
Backblaze is swapping its legacy 100‑gigabit links for 400‑gigabit connections to accommodate the bursty, unpredictable traffic generated by AI workloads on neocloud providers such as CoreWeave and Lambda. The upgrade includes higher‑density Arista switches, allowing terabit‑per‑second internal flows and more...
How AI Is Creating New Intersecting Opportunity Points for Fiber
The 2026 FiberConnect trade show highlights fiber’s expanding role beyond consumer broadband, focusing on data‑center needs driven by AI workloads. Industry forecasts indicate roughly 92,000 route miles of new fiber must be built to connect existing and emerging data centers....
Eir Business Chooses ServiceNow to Strengthen Ireland’s Next-Generation Digital Infrastructure
eir business, Ireland’s managed‑connectivity provider, has entered a multi‑million‑euro (≈ $5.5 million) partnership with ServiceNow to revamp its managed services platform. The deal will migrate eir’s operations onto ServiceNow’s AI Platform, delivering a unified portal, AI‑driven automation, and real‑time analytics. The...
ISCO International and Abside Networks Deliver Advanced 5G Anti-Jamming Resiliency
ISCO International and Abside Networks have integrated ISCO’s Interference Management and Cancellation (IMC) software into Abside’s next‑generation 5G and Open RAN platforms. The combined solution automatically detects and cancels RF interference, including intentional jamming, narrowband and wideband sources, and tropospheric...