Assurance

Ericsson has secured a three-year, $3 billion partnership with Export Development Canada (EDC) to expand R&D, fortify supply chains, and accelerate nextโ€‘gen network technologies with Canadian roots and global reach. The agreement arms Ericsson with EDCโ€™s financing and insurance support to scale Canada-based projects in 5G, Cloud RAN, AI-driven network operations, and early quantum communications research while integrating Canadian suppliers into its international ecosystem. Over the term, Ericsson aims to deepen R&D executed across Ottawa, Montrรฉal, and Torontoโ€”where more than 3,100 employees work on 5G Advanced, 6G, quantum networking, and automationโ€”expanding the countryโ€™s contribution to the vendorโ€™s global product and standards roadmap.
Verizon and AST SpaceMobile have advanced their partnership into a definitive commercial agreement to deliver space-based cellular coverage in the United States starting in 2026. The agreement enables Verizon subscribers to connect โ€œwhen neededโ€ to AST SpaceMobileโ€™s low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites using standard, unmodified phones. AST says service will focus on coverage gaps across the continental U.S., and will extend Verizonโ€™s premium 850 MHz low-band spectrum into remote areas. AST highlights successful space tests as proof points and positions the network for both commercial and government use.
India and the United Kingdom have launched the Indiaโ€“UK Connectivity and Innovation Centre to accelerate secure, AI-driven, and resilient telecom technologies over the next four years. The two governments committed an initial ยฃ24 millionโ€”roughly โ‚น250โ€“โ‚น282 crore depending on exchange ratesโ€”to fund applied research, joint testbeds, field trials, and standards contributions in emerging telecom domains. The investment concentrates on three pillars: AI in telecommunications, non-terrestrial networks (NTNs) for satellite and airborne connectivity, and telecoms cybersecurity with open, interoperable systems. The multi-year window aligns to the critical runway for 5Gโ€‘Advanced and early 6G experimentation.
Telecom Secretary Neeraj Mittal underscored that AI will be central to the next generation of networks, not an add-on. The direction aligns with industry momentum: 5G-Advanced is already introducing AI-enabled RAN and core features via 3GPP, while 6G initiatives under the ITU-R IMT-2030 framework envision AI-native control loops, sensing-assisted connectivity, and tight integration of compute and communications. India expects 6G trials to begin around 2028, with commercial deployments to follow. Operators that harden their AI and automation capabilities during 5G-Advanced will enter 6G with a competitive execution advantage.
After two years of decline, telecom equipment spending is edging back into positive territory with early signs of a broad-based rebound. Dellโ€™Oro Groupโ€™s preliminary data indicates worldwide telecom equipment revenues across six tracked sectors rose 4% year over year in the first half of 2025, with markets outside China up a stronger 8%. The rebound was not limited to a single pocket of spend, but three areas led the gains: mobile core networks, optical transport, and service provider routers and switches. By contrast, RAN remains comparatively muted in many markets as 5G macro buildouts mature.
SafetyCaseโ€”Orange Businessโ€™s portable emergency telecoms unitโ€”now bonds terrestrial access with OneWebโ€™s LEO satellite backhaul to keep voice, data, and video online when fixed and mobile networks fail. The move adds low-latency satellite links from a European operator to a solution already engineered and built in France, aligning with sovereignty and continuity mandates across the EU. The target users include first responders, public safety agencies, local authorities, operators of vital importance (OVIs), and essential enterprises. LEO adds a robust, geographically independent path that supports modern, IP-based coordination toolsโ€”push-to-talk over LTE/5G (MCX), live video, GISโ€”and does so with the latency profile field teams require.
The new AT&T IoT Marketplace turns complex IoT procurement and lifecycle management into a catalog-driven digital experience that aims to speed revenue and reduce operational friction for enterprises and partners. AT&T, working with Ericsson, introduced a digital eCommerce platform that unifies how IoT services are discovered, configured, contracted, provisioned, and billed. The Marketplace is powered by Ericssonโ€™s Digital Experience Platform alongside its Catalogue Manager and Order Care components. AT&T reports it has cut the time it takes to order certain fleet management services from hours to minutes, an indicator of the step-change in operational efficiency the Marketplace is designed to deliver.
Swedenโ€™s largest passenger rail operator SJ is consolidating its communications estate with Telia to accelerate 5G, IoT, and crisis-readiness across trains, stations, depots, and corporate operations. The partnership positions Telia as SJโ€™s primary provider for nationwide mobile and fixed communications, combining public 5G/LTE coverage with managed services that support dayโ€‘toโ€‘day rail operations and passenger experience. For passengers, more consistent Wiโ€‘Fi backhaul and seamless digital services are the immediate wins; for operations, the prize is reliability and faster recovery when incidents occur. European operators are scaling beyond discrete connectivity pilots toward platforms that unify onboard systems, station sensors, and backโ€‘office analytics.
Nokia has introduced a fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) digital twin and AI-powered applications inside its Altiplano platform to give operators a unified view of active and passive assets and to improve reliability with faster, first-time fixes. The core launch centers on creating a digital twin of the FTTH network that stitches together live data from active elements (OLT/ONT, IP edge, customer premises equipment) with outside-plant passive infrastructure (ducts, cables, splitters) maintained in inventory and geospatial systems. Together, these tools target the highest-impact operational pain points: early anomaly detection, automated topology audits, faster root cause analysis, and improved first-time fix rates.
Australia is moving quickly to shore up the 000 emergency call service ahead of the bushfire season by hauling telco chiefs to Canberra and fastโ€‘tracking reforms. The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has opened a compliance investigation, and Optus has appointed Kerry Schott to lead an independent technical review into the failures. The reforms build on proposals flagged after the nationwide Optus outage in November 2023 and signal a shift from afterโ€‘theโ€‘fact reporting to proactive assurance for a service that must be available under extreme conditions.
A sprawling social engineering campaign tied to the Lapsus$/Scattered Spider/ShinyHunters ecosystem is extorting enterprises after allegedly siphoning close to a billion records from Salesforce customer environments. Attackers claim broad theft of personally identifiable information from organizations that use Salesforce, while the vendor states its core platform and code were not breached. Evidence points to identity-led social engineering, followed by misuse of sanctioned tools and APIs to quietly extract large data volumes. For telecom and enterprise IT, CRM data now sits on the front line of extortion economics, raising urgent questions about identity controls, SaaS hardening, and third-party risk.
The AI value gap is wideningโ€”and itโ€™s now a strategy problem, not a tooling problem. Fresh research shows a small cohort of โ€œfuture-builtโ€ companies converting AI into material P&L impact while most firms lag despite sizable spend. BCGโ€™s 2025 assessment of 1,250 senior executives finds only 5% of companies have the capabilities to consistently generate outsized AI value, with 35% scaling and beginning to see benefits, and a full 60% reporting little to no financial impact to date.

Assurance News Feed

Feature Your Brand with the Winners

In Private Network Magazine Editions

Sponsorship placements open until Oct 31, 2025

TeckNexus Newsletters

I acknowledge and agree to receive TeckNexus communications in line with the T&C and privacy policy.ย 

Whitepaper
Telecom networks are facing unprecedented complexity with 5G, IoT, and cloud services. Traditional service assurance methods are becoming obsolete, making AI-driven, real-time analytics essential for competitive advantage. This independent industry whitepaper explores how DPUs, GPUs, and Generative AI (GenAI) are enabling predictive automation, reducing operational costs, and improving service quality....
Whitepaper
Explore how Generative AI is transforming telecom infrastructure by solving critical industry challenges like massive data management, network optimization, and personalized customer experiences. This whitepaper offers in-depth insights into AI and Gen AI's role in boosting operational efficiency while ensuring security and regulatory compliance. Telecom operators can harness these AI-driven...
Supermicro and Nvidia Logo
Article & Insights
This article explores the deployment of 5G NR Transparent Non-Terrestrial Networks (NTNs), detailing the architecture's advantages and challenges. It highlights how this "bent-pipe" NTN approach integrates ground-based gNodeB components with NGSO satellite constellations to expand global connectivity. Key challenges like moving beam management, interference mitigation, and latency are discussed, underscoring...
Scroll to Top