3GPP

Ericsson AI-ready 5G and defence pivot

Ericsson AI-ready 5G and defence pivot
Ericsson is signaling a strategic shift toward defence, mission-critical, and AI-era network architectures as traditional RAN spending stays flat. Management expects the global RAN market to remain flat in 2026, sustaining a multi-year trend that now pegs annual spend at roughly the low-$30 billions. Ericsson is building for a traffic mix shift where AI applications push uplink throughput and latency to the forefront. Defence, utilities, transport, and public safety are moving from proprietary systems to standards-based 3GPP networks.

AST SpaceMobile BlueBird 7 on New Glenn: Direct-to-Device Cellular Broadband

AST SpaceMobile BlueBird 7 on New Glenn: Direct-to-Device Cellular Broadband
BlueBird 7 is slated to lift off in late February from Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on the New Glenn-3 mission. It is AST SpaceMobile’s first payload on New Glenn and the second satellite in its next-generation “Block 2” campaign, following BlueBird 6. BlueBird 7 mirrors BlueBird 6 and carries a deployable array of about 2,400 square feet—the company positions it as the largest commercial communications aperture in low Earth orbit. The design, backed by thousands of patent and patent-pending claims, is engineered to deliver peak downlink rates up to 120 Mbps directly to standard, unmodified devices for voice, data, and video.

Telstra Expands Private Cellular Networks Across Australia with Aqura

Telstra Expands Private Cellular Networks Across Australia with Aqura
Telstra and Aqura Technologies are transforming industrial connectivity across Australia with over dozens of private 4G and 5G networks deployed in mining, logistics, ports, and defense. Aqura earns the “Private Network Excellence in System Integration” award for delivering scalable, rugged, and locally managed private cellular solutions. These deployments power automation, AI, robotics, and real-time operations across some of the world's most challenging environments.

EU Digital Networks Act: Single Market, Spectrum, Security

EU Digital Networks Act: Single Market, Spectrum, Security
The European Commission’s Digital Networks Act (DNA) is a sweeping proposal to harmonize telecom rules, catalyze next‑generation investment, and turn 27 national markets into a functional single market for connectivity. The DNA is timed to underpin an AI‑driven economy that depends on fiber, 5G/6G, and low‑latency cloud‑edge fabrics spanning borders. Longer licence durations and more flexible sharing are intended to reduce renewal risk and unlock investment in 5G densification and 6G prep. Mandatory national plans to phase out copper between 2030 and 2035 will free OPEX and energy, but require careful migration of regulated wholesale products, vulnerable users, and critical services.

Enterprise Private 5G Security: Zero‑Trust | WBA Report

Enterprise Private 5G Security: Zero‑Trust | WBA Report
Enterprises are moving fast to private 5G to digitize operations, but the payoff only materializes if security scales with the new connectivity footprint. Private 5G brings deterministic wireless to factories, hospitals, ports, and energy sites, connecting robots, AGVs, cameras, and critical control systems. Security must follow identities and workloads, not subnets. Adopt a Zero‑Trust approach aligned to NIST SP 800‑207 with a single source of truth for identity and policy. Shift from perimeter controls to context-driven segmentation. Build on open standards and APIs to avoid lock‑in and simplify operations. Security must be foundational, measurable, and auditable from day one.

AI drives need for stronger 5G uplink in the U.S.

AI drives need for stronger 5G uplink in the U.S.
AI-driven experiences are flipping the traffic mix, pulling more capacity demand toward the uplink than U.S. mobile networks have historically planned for. Generative and vision-based AI are shifting usage from predominantly downloads to more continuous and bandwidth-heavy uploads. Recent benchmarking shows U.S. 5G networks prioritize downlink KPIs more than peers in Asia, even as uplink usage climbs. RootMetrics’ drive testing in late 2025 found all three U.S. carriers set roughly one-fifth of their midband Time Division Duplex (TDD) frame resources for uplink. That gap becomes material as AI, livestreaming, and enterprise camera workloads expand. U.S. carriers continued to win experience awards in early 2026, even as their uplink allocations trailed global leaders.

6G XR: Holographic Calling on Live 5G SA

6G XR: Holographic Calling on Live 5G SA
A European 6G-XR consortium led by Capgemini, Ericsson, i2CAT and Vicomtech demonstrated holographic calling and edge-anchored XR services on live standalone 5G, signaling how networks will evolve to support immersive collaboration at 6G scale. The team executed end-to-end trials of real-time holographic communication and distributed XR experiences spanning edge nodes across Barcelona and Madrid. To keep spatial media stable under cell load, the partners implemented proactive congestion detection and an on-demand quality mechanism that prioritizes holographic traffic. Notably, the consortium has referenced IMS Data Channel as a vehicle to anchor real-time holographic streams within operator service frameworks.

Ofcom probes BT and Three UK outages

Ofcom probes BT and Three UK outages
UK regulator Ofcom has opened formal investigations into BT (including EE) and Three after nationwide voice service outages this summer impaired access to other networks and to emergency services. BT notified Ofcom of a software-related failure that disrupted interconnect voice services to and from the EE mobile network on 24–25 July 2025. During the incident, many BT and EE customers could not complete mobile calls to other networks or reach emergency services. Three separately reported a UK-wide disruption to voice services on 25 June 2025, which also affected some customers’ ability to contact emergency services.

Rogers Satellite-to-Mobile: NTN Connectivity for Consumers and IoT

Rogers Satellite-to-Mobile: NTN Connectivity for Consumers and IoT
Rogers Communications has moved from beta to a commercial footprint for satellite-to-mobile in Canada, extending basic connectivity and select apps to consumer smartphones while adding an industrial IoT tier for remote operations. The new Rogers Satellite service enables a curated set of popular apps to work beyond terrestrial coverage, including WhatsApp calling, Google Maps, AccuWeather, X, and CalTopo on most modern smartphones. In parallel, Rogers introduced satellite-to-mobile for IoT businesses, targeting asset tracking along highways and rail, as well as sensor telemetry in forestry, mining, and other resource sectors where terrestrial cellular is sparse.

3GPP Issue 11: Release 18–19 Highlights and Early 6G

3GPP Issue 11: Release 18–19 Highlights and Early 6G
The latest 3GPP cycle consolidates 5G-Advanced (Release 18), sets the agenda for Release 19, and frames early 6G studies, with direct implications for operator investment, enterprise use cases, and vendor roadmaps. Release 18, the first phase of 5G-Advanced, is moving from standards completion into implementation, bringing carrier-grade enhancements in spectral efficiency, energy savings, and mobility performance. Release 19 now builds on these foundations, prioritizing further RAN efficiency, XR and video delivery at scale, richer analytics/exposure in the core (NWDAF, NEF/CAPIF), and enterprise-grade reliability across private and public networks.

Airbus shows how 3GPP steers mission-critical communications

3GPP for Mission-Critical Communications: Airbus Agnet
3GPP has become the organizing framework for how public safety, utilities, transportation and enterprise security adopt LTE/5G for mission-critical communications (MCX). For mission-critical users, 3GPP’s scope includes capabilities such as push-to-talk, data and video designed for high availability, priority, pre-emption and end-to-end security. For agencies and enterprises, the value of 3GPP is practical: it lowers integration risk, clarifies feature expectations and aligns multi-year investment roadmaps. Standards are the foundation; operational reliability is the measure of success. 3GPP is the baseline for resilient, interoperable operations.

Cobham Satcom–Gatehouse Satcom Merger Powers 5G NTN

Cobham Satcom–Gatehouse Satcom Merger Powers 5G NTN
A strategic merger to accelerate standardized 5G NTN Cobham Satcom is merging its Network Division with Gatehouse Satcom to push 3GPP-based non-terrestrial networks from trials to scalable deployments. The combined entity will sit as a subsidiary within Cobham Satcom Group, led by Kenney Schmidt Christiansen, Gatehouse Satcom’s current CEO. Cobham Satcom will hold a majority stake and continue to serve maritime, government, and enterprise customers through its SAILOR, Sea Tel, EXPLORER, and TRACKER brands. The transaction requires standard regulatory approvals but positions both companies to offer an end-to-end 5G NTN platform spanning software, ground infrastructure, and terminals.
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