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Telecom and Tech M&A Tracker 2025

Telecom and Tech M&A Tracker
2025 has seen major telecom and tech M&A activity, including billion-dollar deals in fiber, AI, cloud, and cybersecurity. This monthly tracker details key acquisitions, like AT&T buying Lumen’s fiber assets and Google’s $32B move for Wiz, highlighting how consolidation is shaping the competitive landscape.

Jio IPO: Tariff Hike Timing, Airtel RMS, 5G Outlook

Jio 2026 IPO: Impact on 5G, Capex, ARPU, and India’s Digital Market
Reliance Jio’s path to a mid-2026 IPO is increasingly intertwined with the timing and magnitude of India’s next mobile tariff hike. Domestic brokers argue Jio has a tactical reason to push back on near-term tariff increases: hikes tend to accelerate Bharti Airtel’s revenue market share (RMS) gains more than Jio’s, narrowing the lead at the worst possible time for an IPO. Airtel has been the key beneficiary of previous price actions, chipping away at Jio’s RMS advantage by almost two percentage points since mid-2024. On current assumptions, Jio is informally pegged around $153 billion, implying an EV/EBITDA multiple near the low teens.

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.

India’s DoT spectrum sharing rules for 5G

INDIA NEARS POSITION AS TOP TWO GLOBAL 5G ECOSYSTEM: MINISTER ASHWINI VAISHNAW
The Indian government has floated draft rules that refine how mobile operators can share spectrum, aiming to boost spectral efficiency and accelerate 5G expansion under the new telecommunications regulatory framework. The draft rules seek to formalize spectrum sharing under the new regime, giving operators a clearer pathway to pool or share spectrum holdings while ensuring compliance with license conditions. In practical terms, telcos would gain a more predictable mechanism to use underutilized spectrum, improve coverage, and optimize capacity without always resorting to new auctions or heavy capex.

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.

India 6 GHz Spectrum: Wi‑Fi vs IMT Showdown

SPECTRUM CONTROVERSY THE ROLE OF THE 6 GHZ BAND IN INDIA’S TELECOMMUNICATIONS FUTURE
A high-stakes policy fight has emerged in India over the 6 GHz band, pitting global device and cloud ecosystems against mobile operators over whether the band should power unlicensed Wi‑Fi or licensed mobile (IMT) networks. Apple, Amazon, Cisco, Meta, HP, and Intel have jointly urged India’s regulator, TRAI, to reserve the full 6 GHz range for Wi‑Fi, arguing the band is not technically or commercially ready for IMT and that unlicensed use will deliver immediate, widespread capacity benefits. Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone Idea have countered that delicensing upper 6 GHz would permanently foreclose India’s option to deploy wide‑area licensed broadband in prime mid‑band spectrum.

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.

Jio 5G opens free 18‑month Google Gemini Pro

Jio 5G opens free 18‑month Google Gemini Pro
Reliance Jio has widened its Google AI bundle from a youth-focused offer to a network-wide benefit, signaling that AI services are becoming core to 5G monetization in India. Jio is extending a complimentary 18‑month subscription to Google’s premium AI plan—marketed around access to Gemini 3—to every Jio customer on an Unlimited 5G plan. The bundle centers on expanded access to Google’s latest Gemini experience, AI‑assisted features in Gmail and Docs, 2 TB of cloud storage across Photos, Drive, and Gmail, video generation powered by Google’s Veo technology, NotebookLM at elevated limits, and developer tooling such as Gemini Code Assist and Gemini CLI.

Bharti Airtel S&P Upgrade on Strong Q2, ARPU and 5G

Bharti Airtel S&P Upgrade on Strong Q2, ARPU and 5G
S&P Global Ratings has upgraded Bharti Airtel on the back of stronger earnings quality, healthier free cash flow, and a clearer deleveraging path, signaling a maturing Indian mobile market. The action reflects rising confidence that India’s tariff repair is sticking after mid-2024 hikes, with average revenue per user moving up and a larger share of premium 4G/5G subscribers. Airtel’s fiscal Q2 (India) showed operating momentum and cash discipline—key ingredients behind the rating move. Tariff increases and a richer subscriber mix pushed ARPU above the psychologically important INR 200 threshold, aided by postpaid gains, 4G/5G migration, and bundled content.

UK telco class action: handset overcharging claims

UK telco class action: handset overcharging claims
A UK tribunal has allowed a major consumer case to proceed against the country’s biggest mobile operators over alleged overcharging after device loans were repaid. The Competition Appeal Tribunal has certified a collective action alleging that Vodafone, BT’s EE, Virgin Media O2, and Three UK continued to bill customers for handsets after the device portion had been paid off. Claims tied to losses before October 2015 were dismissed as out of time, but post-2015 allegations will go to trial. The ruling does not determine liability; it sets the scope and allows disclosure and trial preparation.

5G net neutrality: Jio urges TRAI flexibility

Jio 5G Nears 50% of Mobile Base
5G standalone networks change the service model. Operators can carve the network into slices with distinct latency, reliability, and throughput characteristics validated by 3GPP standards. That enables ultra-reliable low-latency communications for factory automation, connected vehicles, remote operations, and mission-critical services. It also enables differentiated quality for cloud gaming, broadcast-like video, and IoT control loops when combined with edge computing and time-sensitive networking. Jio’s position is that treating all traffic identically under a single “internet access” umbrella can inhibit these new uses. A ruleset that preserves open internet principles for consumers yet explicitly allows specialized services with assured QoS for enterprises is what the company seeks.
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