3GPP

Iridium and T-Mobile are scaling satellite-delivered positioning, navigation, and timing services under a U.S. Department of Transportation initiative to bolster the resilience of 5G networks against GPS disruptions. The collaboration equips T-Mobile sites with Iridium PNT receivers to deliver precise, authenticated timing that complements existing GNSS sources. Iridium transmits timing over its low-earth-orbit constellation in the L-band, offering weather-resilient coverage and stronger signals than typical GNSS. The service is engineered for sub-100-nanosecond accuracy, uses cryptographic protections for integrity, and can operate indoors without an external antenna, addressing urban canyons, indoor small cells, and hard-to-reach sites where GNSS is unreliable.
A planned merger between Lynk Global and Omnispace aims to fuse spectrum assets, satellite technology, and SES’s multi-orbit infrastructure to scale 3GPP-compliant direct-to-device services worldwide. The combined company will pair Omnispace’s globally coordinated S-band holdings, about 60 MHz anchored by ITU filings and aligned to non-terrestrial network standards—with Lynk’s patented multi-spectrum D2D platform. SES, already an investor in both firms, will become a major strategic shareholder and provide access to its GEO and MEO assets and ground network to improve coverage, resiliency, and time-to-market. Lynk has already launched commercial messaging and alerting in small markets with a handful of LEO spacecraft.
Mint Mobile is expanding from prepaid wireless into fixed wireless access, introducing a 5G home internet offer that targets price-sensitive households and small offices with unlimited data and headline speeds up to 415 Mbps for as low as $30 per month. The company’s “MINTernet” is a self-install 5G home internet service that rides on T-Mobile’s nationwide 5G network, following T-Mobile’s acquisition of Mint’s parent Ka’ena Corporation in 2024. At a starting price of $30 per month, Mint undercuts many cable and fiber entry tiers and lands below other national 5G FWA offers, which typically range from $35 to $60 depending on mobile bundle eligibility.
New usage data shows AT&T subscribers are tapping into T-Mobile’s Starlink-powered T-Satellite more than expected, signaling a rapid shift in how carriers and customers think about direct-to-device connectivity. Speedtest intelligence indicates T-Mobile users account for the majority of direct-to-device (D2D) connections to Starlink, roughly six in ten overall and more than seven in ten among devices reporting active service at connection time. The surprise is AT&T’s footprint: about a third of observed connections come from AT&T subscribers, while Verizon’s share is minimal.
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 enterprise’s edge compute environment, rather than traversing centralized cores or the public internet. T-Platform is T-Mobile’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%. Jio’s fixed wireless access service, Jio AirFiber, more than tripled year-on-year to 9.5 million subscribers. Bottom line: Jio’s 5G is now at meaningful scale with rising ARPU, heavier usage, and fast-growing FWA—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 company’s always-on Business Operations Center for continuity during crises. T-Mobile’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, “all-in-one” 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.
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 “when needed” to AST SpaceMobile’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 Verizon’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 India–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 £24 million—roughly ₹250–₹282 crore depending on exchange rates—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 5G‑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. Dell’Oro Group’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.
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