Telecom news, 5G and AI infrastructure

From the newsletter (October 20; sign-up or follow if you want it sooner): A new 6G architecture is taking shape, but its business case remains elusive. This week: AI-RAN performance …

NTN roaming, spectrum and 6G gaps all land on the handset In sum – what we know: Seamless connectivity is the promise on every NTN marketing deck, and RCR Tech’s …

Ericsson forecasts surging uplink demand as AI shifts mobile traffic patterns, urging operators to avoid 5G’s costly standalone delays. Its 6G vision hinges on spectrum efficiency, reusable infrastructure, and services …

Stephen Douglas, head of strategic thought leadership at Keysight Technologies, said during the recent RCR’s 6G Forum that future 6G technology will be standalone from the beginning with its own …

From the newsletter (October 19; sign-up or follow if you want it sooner): Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Telefónica and Vodafone want a joint position on mobile satellite spectrum, but can Europe’s …

Spain, U.K. and U.S. regulators map different roads to WRC-27 In sum – what we know: Direct-to-device connectivity has run ahead of the international rulebook. Reusing spectrum allocated solely for terrestrial …

US telecom retail remains resilient, but Wave7 Research’s Jeff Moore questions whether Starlink can become a national mobile operator. SpaceX could bypass the traditional retail model, but building a competitive …

Speaking at the RCR Wireless News’s Telco AI Forum 2026, AT&T and Verizon executives described AI-based RAN deployments that are already producing measurable results In sum – what to know …

From the newsletter (October 16; sign-up or follow if you want it sooner): Starlink need not replace terrestrial networks to disrupt telecoms. Strand Consult and Dell’Oro examine SpaceX’s hybrid ambitions, …

Panel maps the 6G path from standalone 5G to agentic AI cores In sum – what we know: 6G has started moving from vision to engineering, and with it comes …

Speaking at RCR Wireless News’ 6G Forum 2026, Stéphane Téral, founder and chief analyst at Téral Research, said the standardization process was moving toward evaluation and consensus building In sum …

Ericsson chief Per Narvinger has defended the firm’s custom silicon strategy for AI RAN, quite robustly, citing immediate opportunities and 10% spectrum-efficiency gains, and future options for GPU adoption too. …

AI is shifting from training to inference, and two pressures now define the business: the end-user experience and the return on investment. RCR’s AI Infrastructure Forum returns to ask: can …

Plume has rebuilt its architecture, embraced industry standards and launched an AI agent workspace, shifting from Wi-Fi optimization to ISP-wide intelligence. The bet: lower support costs, reduced churn and new …

CCS Insight, Qualcomm and Elveo on how satellite reaches commercial scale Non-terrestrial networks have moved from proprietary islands to early commercial direct-to-device services in dozens of countries in the space …

From RAN Simulation Digital Twins to the Self-Aware, Agentic RAN How VIAVI AI RAN Scenario Generator (AI RSG), App Twin ADK, Application Validation Engine (AVE), and Claude Accelerate AI-Native Networks …

Matthew Iji, head of data modelling and forecasting at GSMA Intelligence, told RCR that 6G will move from selective launches to global scale gradually, with coexistence rather than wholesale replacement …

Ericsson is ‘dissolving’ its enterprise wireless unit but keeping its private and neutral-host 5G portfolios, betting on R&D synergies and indoor connectivity, notably with Starlink-style satellite systems. But with Nokia’s …

Ericsson beat Q3 earnings forecasts on seven percent organic sales growth, but warned AI-driven component costs will pressure margins through 2027, and said growth remains hard to come by – …

From the newsletter (October 14; sign-up or follow if you want it sooner): AT&T has agreed to sell its Mexican business for $2bn, ending a decade-long expansion abroad to focus …