Network Slicing

Vodafone named Dell Technologies a strategic infrastructure provider for a five-year Open RAN buildout across Europe, signaling a move from trials to scaled, automated 5G networks. Vodafone will expand one of Europeโ€™s largest Open RAN footprints using Dell infrastructure as part of a multi-year radio access modernization program. Dell will supply its PowerEdge XR8000 series servers, including the XR8620t and the latest XR8720t with Intel Xeon 6 SoC. Vodafone also plans to adopt the Dell Telecom Infrastructure Automation Suite (DTIAS) to provide the Infrastructure Management Service within its Open RAN architecture, designed to automate Day 0/1/2 lifecycle operations for O-Cloud infrastructure.
NEC is moving to scale its cloud and SaaS business support capabilities with a $2.9 billion acquisition of CSG Systems International, positioning Netcracker at the center of the combined telecom monetization play. CSG brings a sizable recurring-revenue portfolio in digital BSS, billing, charging, and customer engagement used by communications, cable, media, and digital service providers, complementing Netcrackerโ€™s OSS/BSS, orchestration, and service automation strengths. The all-cash deal values CSG at approximately $2.9 billion on an enterprise value basis and has unanimous board approval, with closing targeted for 2026 pending CSG shareholder approval and customary antitrust and other regulatory reviews.
India has ceded the lowest-tariff crown to Bangladesh and Egypt, yet it still leads on value through generous allowances and low data unit costs. Indian base plans commonly include unlimited voice, whereas Bangladesh and Egypt restrict voice to roughly 100 and 70 minutes respectively at entry level. On data, incremental purchase economics are unusually attractive: an extra Rs 100 typically buys around 26 GB, or about Rs 4 per GB, keeping India among the most affordable data markets globally. Even after adjusting for purchasing power parity, India remains at the affordable end of global tariff rankings.
The partnership targets two fronts: mission-critical rail communications for operations and high-speed broadband for passengers. The scope includes deploying advanced 5G infrastructure, testing FRMCS-based use cases, and running a real-world trial on an existing SAR line to validate performance, integration, and safety requirements. An innovation and test lab will be established to accelerate solution validation, and SAR teams will be trained on FRMCS/5G rail technologies to build in-house capability. The partners will explore 5G Standalone capabilities for operational communications, including quality-of-service guarantees, redundancy, and resilience needed for rail. FRMCS-aligned services such as mission-critical push-to-talk/data/video (MCX), Railway Emergency Call, and secure staff communications will be validated for integration with signaling and control systems.
Vodafone is partnering with Irish firm Zinkworks on Rapid RIC, a central platform that blends secure data analytics, a visual low-code interface, and code-generating AI to create and operate RAN applications, or rApps. The goal is ambitious but specific: cut time-to-market from months to weeks, scale deployments across markets, and improve service quality, capacity, and energy use. The platform is slated for early 2026 availability and will run primarily on Vodafoneโ€™s private Google Cloud Platform environment. Rapid RIC uses GenAI to generate production-grade code from visual designs, enabling radio engineers to turn domain knowledge directly into software without deep AI or ML skills.
Industry capex remained exceptionally strong in 2024, underscoring broadbandโ€™s status as critical infrastructure for the digital and AI economy. Broadband providers invested an estimated $89.6 billion in U.S. communications infrastructure last year, pushing cumulative investment since 1996 to more than $2.2 trillion and keeping the 2020โ€“2024 average above $90 billion annually. Spend concentrated on fiber deepening, rural reach, wireless capacity, and overall network scale for AI, cloud, and streaming workloads. While 2024 trailed 2023โ€™s higher tally, it still signals a sustained, competitive race to modernize fixed and mobile networks.
General Motors will begin rolling out a Google Geminiโ€“powered conversational assistant across Buick, Chevrolet, Cadillac, and GMC in 2026, advancing the automakerโ€™s in-cabin AI strategy and resetting expectations for voice-driven services in connected vehicles. GM plans to deliver a new assistant, built on Googleโ€™s Gemini family, as an over-the-air update via the Play Store to eligible OnStar-equipped vehicles from model year 2015 and newer. At launch, drivers should see more natural interactions: the assistant will understand free-form requests, maintain context across turns, and cope better with accents and phrasing. GM says the assistant will tap vehicle data to push maintenance alerts and route suggestions as well.
Hospitals are turning to a dual-network model that pairs neutral host coverage with private 5G to handle surging data, device density, and distinct user groups across large clinical campuses. Healthcare networks are stressed by electronic health records, telehealth, connected medical equipment, and higher patient expectations for always-on mobile service. A combined neutral host and private 5G architecture lets IT leaders segment traffic and policy by role and use case, align with data sovereignty requirements, and scale capacity as device fleets and AI-driven workflows grow. The model separates public cellular access for general users from dedicated private 5G for clinical and operational workloads.
T-Mobile US expanded its Advanced Network Solutions portfolio with Edge Control and T-Platform, aiming to deliver private network-like performance over its nationwide 5G-Advanced footprint while simplifying how enterprises deploy, govern, and scale edge workloads. Edge Control enables cellular traffic to exit locally and flow directly into an enterpriseโ€™s edge compute environment, rather than traversing centralized cores or the public internet. T-Platform is T-Mobileโ€™s customer portal for managing business services, including Edge Control. Traditional MEC offers low-latency access to hyperscaler edge zones but often relies on internet or backhaul paths that add jitter and sovereignty concerns.
Jio closed the quarter ended 30 September with 234 million 5G users, up 86 million year-on-year and now approaching half of its 506.4 million total mobile base. Financial momentum tracked the subscriber and traffic surge. Jio Platforms posted quarterly revenue of INR 426.5 billion, up 14.9% year-on-year, and net profit of INR 73.8 billion, up 12.8%. Jioโ€™s fixed wireless access service, Jio AirFiber, more than tripled year-on-year to 9.5 million subscribers. Bottom line: Jioโ€™s 5G is now at meaningful scale with rising ARPU, heavier usage, and fast-growing FWAโ€”setting up a monetization phase led by targeted pricing actions, application partnerships, and enterprise services as 5G-Advanced capabilities arrive.
T-Mobile has launched a purpose-built Cyber Defense Center alongside a new Executive Briefing Center, signaling a maturing, integrated approach to cyber resilience across its network and enterprise business. T-Mobile unveiled a centralized Cyber Defense Center at its Bellevue, Washington headquarters to detect, disrupt, and respond to threats in real time, complemented by an Executive Briefing Center that showcases industry use cases and a tie-in to the companyโ€™s always-on Business Operations Center for continuity during crises. T-Mobileโ€™s Business Operations Center remains the operational backbone for network health, customer experience continuity, and coordinated disaster response, integrating data-driven dashboards that support rapid decisioning during natural disasters, outages, and high-impact events.
Defense, public safety, transport, and critical infrastructure need deterministic connectivity that moves with the mission. Traditional rollouts struggle with time-to-service, power, and backhaul constraints. Portable, โ€œall-in-oneโ€ 5G modules help bridge that gap by putting the radio, core, and management closer to the edge, enabling local breakout, resilience, and consistent QoS. With 3GPP Release 16/17 features maturing and SA-first private networks becoming standard, demand is shifting from pilots to field-ready systems that can be mounted in vehicles, worn as backpacks, or staged in temporary zones.

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