3GPP

Omdia forecasts 5G to accelerate cellular IoT growth

Omdia forecasts 5G to accelerate cellular IoT growth
New data points to a step-change in cellular IoT adoption as 5G broadens into mid-tier and massive-scale use cases while 4G-era LPWA keeps expanding. Omdia forecasts cellular IoT connections to reach roughly 5.9 billion by 2035, driven by expanding addressable use cases across industrial automation, utilities, transportation, retail, and consumer-adjacent categories such as wearables. The growth profile is no longer tied only to premium 5G performance; instead, scaled adoption is coming from three complementary pillars: 5G RedCap for mid-tier performance at lower cost, 5G Massive IoT (evolving NB-IoT/LTE-M under a 5G core), and 4G LTE Cat-1bis for low-cost devices that still require voice or moderate throughput.

Satellite connectivity drives telco churn and ARPU: Viasat Report

Satellite connectivity drives telco churn and ARPU
New consumer research commissioned by Viasat and executed by GSMA Intelligence signals that non-terrestrial networks (NTN) are becoming a mainstream buying factor for mobile subscribers. The survey of more than 12,000 smartphone users across 12 countries finds persistent coverage gaps: over a third of respondents lose basic cellular service multiple times per month. That pain point is translating into intent. Roughly six in ten consumers say they would pay extra for satellite-enabled connectivity on their phones, and nearly half indicate they would switch operators if out‑of‑coverage service were included in their plan. On average, those willing to pay would accept a 5–7% uplift on their current monthly bill, with outliers such as India approaching a 9% premium.

EMSTEEL & e& UAE: Private 5G for Smart Manufacturing

EMSTEEL & e& UAE: Private 5G for Smart Manufacturing
A landmark private 5G pilot at EMSTEEL with e& UAE signals how industrial networks in the region are evolving from connectivity add-ons to strategic infrastructure. The pilot delivers dedicated, high-speed wireless coverage across complex industrial spaces that are often hostile to traditional Wi‑Fi and public cellular. For manufacturers in the UAE, this is a meaningful milestone: it showcases a path to secure, deterministic wireless that can carry safety-critical and time-sensitive workloads on the shop floor. Private 5G gives factories a foundation to adopt connected worker tools, real-time quality control, AI-assisted operations, and digital twins without moving sensitive data off-site.

ZTE & China Unicom deploys Private 5G ISAC for Airport Security

ZTE & China Unicom deploys Private 5G ISAC for Airport Security
ZTE, China Unicom Liaoning and Dalian Changhai Airport have put a 5G-Advanced private network with integrated sensing and communications into live service to address low-altitude security at an island test flight field. The partners deployed a private 5G-Advanced architecture that fuses high-throughput connectivity with precision sensing on the same infrastructure, tailored for a maritime, island airport where traditional patrols and single-sensor radars leave blind spots for “low, slow, small” targets such as drones and bird flocks. According to the partners, the network is running 24/7 at the test flight field and has lifted low-altitude detection accuracy near 98%. By consolidating connectivity and sensing on one footprint, the deployment claims about 30% less space and roughly 25% lower capital intensity versus separate radios and radars.

Private 5G for Croatia’s Smart Airports | Hrvatski Telekom

Private 5G for Croatia’s Smart Airports | Hrvatski Telekom
Hrvatski Telekom will deploy dedicated private 5G networks at Zagreb, Zadar, and Pula airports under a €5.6 million “NextGen 5G Airports” program co-financed by the European Commission’s CEF Digital initiative. The project was selected in a competitive CEF Digital call focused on 5G and edge for smart communities, with €3.09 million in EU grant funding and the remainder financed by Hrvatski Telekom and partners. The program targets operational efficiency, safety, and a better passenger experience through dedicated, configurable, and SLA-backed wireless infrastructure. Edge computing on or near the airport premises will enable low-latency processing for video, safety systems, and time-sensitive control.

Vodafone boosts power resilience at 10,000+ emergency mobile sites

Vodafone boosts power resilience at 10,000+ emergency mobile sites
Vodafone is accelerating a multi-year resilience programme to keep emergency and critical services online during grid failures, an issue that is moving from rare-event planning to board-level risk management. In response, Vodafone fast-tracked its Enhanced Power initiative to harden more than 10,000 critical mobile access sites across Europe over the next two years, starting in Portugal. The system uses AI to predict outages, throttle non-essential loads, and place selected radio elements into low-energy modes, preserving channels for emergency calls, SMS, and priority users. More than 400 core and backbone facilities in the EU are provisioned with batteries and diesel generators for at least 72 hours of backup or guaranteed refueling within 48 hours.

Nvidia open AI models for autonomous driving

Nvidia open AI models for autonomous driving
Nvidia used NeurIPS to expand an open toolkit for digital and physical AI, with a flagship reasoning model for autonomous driving and a broader stack that targets speech, safety, and reinforcement learning. Nvidia introduced DRIVE Alpamayo-R1 (AR1), an open vision-language-action model that fuses multimodal perception with chain-of-thought reasoning and path planning, aiming to push toward Level 4 autonomy in constrained domains. To lower adoption friction, Nvidia published the Cosmos Cookbook with step-by-step recipes for data curation, synthetic data generation, inference, and post-training workflows, enabling customization for diverse physical AI use cases.

Nokia invests $4B in AI-ready US networks

Nokia Shifts Focus to AI and Network Infrastructure
Nokia is making a multi‑year, $4 billion push to expand US R&D and manufacturing as it pivots to AI‑native networks under CEO Justin Hotard. The company will invest roughly $3.5 billion in US‑based R&D spanning networking technologies, defense applications, automation, quantum‑safe networking, and semiconductor development. A further $500 million targets manufacturing and R&D expansion in Texas, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, strengthening domestic supply chains for critical telecom gear. The plan follows Nokia’s strategy revamp and creation of a Mobile Infrastructure unit to advance an AI‑native network portfolio across RAN, transport, IP, and cloud.

6G Spectrum: Why Mid-Band Decisions Can’t Wait

6G Spectrum: Why Mid-Band Decisions Can’t Wait
Policy choices over the next two years will set the capacity ceiling for 6G-era services through the 2030s. Mobile traffic is overwhelmingly urban, concentrated in a small fraction of national land areas and rising fastest in very dense zones. The GSMA’s new Vision 2040 analysis concludes these levers will not keep pace with demand growth on their own. The modeling indicates countries will need, on average, 2–3 GHz of total mid-band assigned for mobile by 2035–2040 to meet peak urban demand; higher-demand markets trend toward 2.5–4 GHz. Crucially, about 2 GHz needs to be operational by 2030 to avoid early congestion as 6G arrives.

Ericsson Mobility Report: differentiated 5G connectivity

Ericsson Mobility Report: differentiated 5G connectivity
Ericsson’s latest Mobility Report points to a clear shift: operators are turning 5G capabilities into differentiated, SLA-backed services rather than just selling more data at higher speeds. After years of building coverage and capacity, 5G networks are mature enough to commercialize features like guaranteed latency, uplink boosts, and application-aware prioritization. The catalysts are in place: more 5G Standalone (SA) cores, rising traffic from video creation and immersive apps, and enterprise demand for predictable performance across sites and clouds. The net result is momentum behind premium, differentiated connectivity that can be priced, assured, and exposed to partners.

India 5G to hit 1B subscribers by 2031: Ericsson’s Mobility Report

Indian Telecom Operators Raise Tariffs After Three Years
India’s 5G market has entered a scale phase, with momentum pointing to more than a billion subscribers and deeper network modernization over the next six years. Ericsson’s latest Mobility Report projects over 1 billion 5G subscriptions in India by end-2031, representing about 79% of the country’s mobile base. Average mobile data usage per active smartphone in India stands near 36 GB per month and is forecast to approach 65 GB per month by 2031. Two demand-side levers stand out: affordable 5G devices and expanding Fixed Wireless Access (FWA), accelerating mainstream adoption and opening a credible substitute to wired broadband in underserved areas.

Verizon layoffs: 13,000+ job cuts and AI-first pivot

Verizon layoffs: 13,000+ job cuts and AI-first pivot
Verizon will cut more than 13,000 roles as part of a broader restructuring aimed at simplifying operations and resetting its cost base for the next phase of growth. The reduction represents roughly 13% of Verizon’s reported ~100,000 full-time workforce and about one-fifth of its non-union management ranks, according to figures shared alongside the announcement. In parallel, Verizon plans to curb outsourcing and other external labor spending, convert 179 company-owned retail stores to franchise operations, and shutter one store. The restructuring reflects subscriber headwinds and a need to rebalance costs as 5G investment priorities shift from buildout to monetization and automation.
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