Free joins more that 60 partners using the platform, Nokia noted, which supports a “growing number of use cases spanning several industries, including banking, healthcare, automotive and entertainment”.

The platform provides a single interface for developers and enterprises to access capabilities across a number of operators. The vendor added it drew “inspiration from industry initiatives like GSMA Open Gateway and the Linux Foundation’s CAMARA project”.

Free CEO Nicolas Thomas said the partnership with Nokia “helps us foster an environment where new APIs and services are being created to benefit our partners, customers and society at large”.

Supporting applications by providing access to network APIs has been a major industry drive in recent years, with the GSMA’s initiative drawing broad industry support since being launched at MWC23 Barcelona.

In 2024, a group of leading mobile operators joined forces with Nokia rival Ericsson to form Aduna, a company tasked with coordinating API efforts led by the Swedish vendor.

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The post INFOGRAPHIC: The Evolution of Antenna Technology appeared first on Mobile World Live.

The connectivity infrastructure-as-a-service company stated nine of the 13 4G and 5G small cells are already active, located in busy areas of the town to boost coverage. These include the high street, historic castle and the railway station.

Freshwave emphasised the dimensions of the small cells are an important element, enabling them to be deployed swiftly using existing street furniture without ruining the town’s aesthetic.

Mobile network operator account director Neil Barnes (pictured) explained its deal with VMO2 and Surrey County Council involves providing open access infrastructure, an arrangement which “means faster rollout, less street clutter and stronger connectivity”.

“It’s a smart, efficient way to support local needs”.

The work in Guildford builds on deals which have seen Freshwave deploy 800 outdoor small cells for various operators in the UK.

VMO2 director of mobile access engineering Professor Robert Joyce said the work is part of a £700 million transformation project.

“We’re bringing faster, more reliable connectivity to busy public spaces to meet record network demand”.

Surrey County Council cabinet member Matt Furniss explained the small cell project advances a digital strategy intended to deliver “stronger local economies” and “more resilient communities”.

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The professional services company, Ericsson, i2CAT Research Centre and Vicomtech worked on holographic communication and the provision of advanced extended reality (XR) services using edge computing in the recent demonstrations.

Ericsson and i2CAT handled the holographic element.

They used dedicated i2CAT technology to deliver consistent holographic calling in tests conducted on Ericsson standalone 5G infrastructure in Barcelona and Madrid. The demonstration used proactive congestion detection, a new algorithmic capability, to monitor network performance in a cell and adapt the stream accordingly during periods of high traffic.

Intelligent traffic prioritisation was also highlighted: this is a means of activating an on-demand quality feature which puts holographic traffic first and can access additional resources if required.

Manuel Lorenzo, Ericsson R&D Spain head of technology and innovation, said the demonstrations “lay the groundwork for the future of XR applications across sectors such as remote industrial maintenance and advanced education, where instant, high-fidelity collaboration is vital”.

All four companies participated in the edge computing demonstration, which proved the ability of XR services to select the optimal node.

Capgemini stated the trial showed distributed XR services could employ standardised APIs to adapt to the underlying compute environment.

It added the demonstrations prove “how network intelligence, edge discovery and application-level adaptability” would shape the future of XR and holography.

Aurora Ramos, R&D connectivity and network lead at Capgemini Engineering, predicted the demonstrations would prove to be important in the development of 6G.

“It further lays the basis for substantial improvement on how people communicate, collaborate and experiment in the digital world.”

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In a field test in the Akmolinskaya region, Beeline Kazakhstan CEO Evgeniy Nastradin and Kazakhstan’s deputy prime minister Zhaslan Madiyev successfully placed a WhatsApp audio call to Veon Group CEO Kaan Terzioglu using a standard 4G smartphone with a Beeline SIM. The pair also exchanged SMS messages and WhatsApp texts over the satellite link.

The operator hailed the milestone as particularly significant for Kazakhstan, the world’s ninth-largest country by land area where remote and sparsely populated regions present long-standing coverage challenges.

Madiyev stated the technology will prove crucial for national resilience, making it possible to stay connected “in places where traditional infrastructure is unavailable: in the mountains, the steppe, forests, and across long distances”. “For our country, given its geography, this is more than just a convenience – it is an important safety measure,” he added.

Last month, Veon’s Ukrainian operator Kyivstar switched on Starlink’s D2D service in the country, marking a Europe first and attracting 300,000 users in the first 24 hours of its launch. “First in Ukraine and now in Kazakhstan, we are demonstrating how terrestrial networks and satellite platforms can operate as one integrated system,” explained Terzioglu.

Beeline Kazakhstan plans to introduce Starlink D2D connectivity for customers starting with SMS services in 2026, subject to regulatory approval.

The post Beeline Kazakhstan makes first Starlink call in Central Asia appeared first on Mobile World Live.

Analysts said dedicated networks deployed in facilities and campuses or in WAN scenarios are boosting operations in shipping ports, manufacturing, airline operations, sports clubs and in the public sector.

SNS Telecom and IT explained 5G is now surpassing LTE as the dominant private network technology and maintained a forecast the sector would yield revenue of $7.2 billion by the close of 2028.

Sales growth is pronounced against a “relatively stagnant” public mobile network sector. The company noted standalone 5G core network revenue is on the up, but RAN is flat following declines in 2024.

Along with Tesla and LG Electronics, SNS Telecom and IT stated Hyundai also reaped benefits at its production facilities: all three “eliminated connect-related automated guided vehicle stoppages” using private networks.

It stated Peel Ports Group reported a tenfold increase in network performance at the Port of Liverpool in the UK, a facility noted to be unfriendly to Wi-Fi due to the amount of metal in place.

English football club Crystal Palace FC is employing headsets connected to a private 5G network to improve matchday experiences for partially sighted fans.

SNS Telecom and IT also noted private networks are beginning to be incorporated by design, pointing to a prison project in the US state of Georgia using Band n48 CBRS spectrum for indoor and outdoor 5G coverage, and a Hitachi Rail facility in the state of Maryland.

The research company expects more than 70 per cent of investments in private networks to be in standalone 5G iterations, fuelled by Industry 4.0 and critical communication needs.

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The nRF9151 SMA development kit uses semi-precision coaxial RF connectors in place of internal antennas, a configuration the company stated enables engineers to make direct connections with high-performance external aerials or laboratory equipment.

Nordic Semiconductor explained the arrangement can be used for cellular IoT and DECT NR+ in addition to NTN.

It expects typical uses to be in remote areas with weak mobile signals, smart buildings with dense node counts and industrial settings.

The D2D modem firmware adds NB-IoT NTN capabilities compatible with 3GPP Rel-17 standards, along with LTE-M and GNSS for hybrid set-ups.

Kristian Saether, senior product director for long-range, said the nRF9151 provides engineers and RF experts “the granular control needed to validate their most ambitious designs”, contributing to efforts to “push the boundaries of wireless” and satellite connectivity.

Nordic Semiconductor stated the development kit includes high-performance antennas from Taoglas and Kyocera; IoT SIMs; and trial data covering terrestrial and satellite connectivity from Deutsche Telekom, Onomondo and Monogoto.

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Research director Sian Morgan stated WLAN revenue in China contracted by double digits.

She stated the Middle East and Africa led market expansion, while most regions rebounded from declines seen in 2024.

The research company reported public cloud-managed WLAN offerings grew at twice the rate of the overall market, driven by higher average selling prices.

On the vendor front, Morgan stated Cisco led by revenue despite being “late to the Wi-Fi 7 party”, due in part to an aggressive pricing strategy.

She noted the latest technology has “ramped faster for Cisco than any prior version of Wi-Fi”.

Morgan told Mobile World Live Cisco sold its first Wi-Fi 7 access point a year after the first North American competitor and almost two years after one commercialised in China.

The post Dell’Oro finds China impact on Q3 WLAN revenue appeared first on Mobile World Live.

After a series of consultations, it published decisions on a handful of technical points today (9 December) and finalised detail on updating operator licences. These are in addition to conditions it outlined in September.

Ofcom’s decisions published today include rules intended to avoid interference with air traffic control systems and mobile networks outside of the UK.  

To launch the services, operators are required to get a change to their current licences. Regulations cover the provision of calls, messages and data services using infrastructure in space.

The regulator branded D2D “new space-age services”, stating they would help eliminate mobile blackspots.

It noted the only country in Europe to have the service widely available is Ukraine, with Ofcom group director for spectrum David Willis stating “mobile operators are already pressing ahead to the make UK the first nation in Western Europe to have widespread access to this technology”.

Although the regulator was keen to emphasise the UK would be the first in the region to have widespread access, latest information from VirginMedia O2 points to a launch in H1 2026 while rival VodafoneThree is yet to give a solid timeline on commercial availability.

Meanwhile, last month Orange outlined plans to launch for some customers in France on 11 December.

The post Ofcom clears way for UK D2D lift-off appeared first on Mobile World Live.

The former positioned the move as a major advance in accelerating the satellite industry’s transition to standardised 5G connectivity and one which will help it serve the commercial, government, defence and direct-to-device (D2D) markets.

Terms of the transaction were not disclosed, though Cobham Satcom noted the entity being formed would become one of its subsidiaries and it would be the majority shareholder.

CEO Christophe Duret described the deal as an acquisition.

The entity is to be led by Gatehouse Satcom CEO Kenney Schmidt Christiansen.

Cobham Satcom provides RAN platforms and ground infrastructure, while Gatehouse Satcom specialises in software related to 5G NTN.

The business being formed is set to further develop “3GPP-compatible 5G NTN software”, which “Gatehouse Satcom has already proven in LEO, MEO and GEO” infrastructure, the Cobham Satcom division noted.

It plans to maintain existing products and expand “next generation 5G/6G NTN connectivity solutions” for clients providing services to the maritime, defence, IoT, enterprise and D2D markets across the globe.

Christiansen noted the deal with Cobham Satcom would provide “the scale and talent to accelerate our ambitions”.

“Together, we will continue developing world-class 5G NTN software and hardware for commercial, government and defence customers, now in an even stronger structure supported by Cobham Satcom’s operational scale and network expertise.”

Duret added the “acquisition creates significant strategic opportunities as the satellite communications industry undergoes rapid transformation”.

The deal is subject to regulatory approval.

The post Satellite players combine to bolster 5G NTN appeared first on Mobile World Live.

Toronto, Canada-based Lumine Group will acquire Synchronoss for $9 per share, a roughly 70 per cent premium to the stock’s 3 December closing price. The companies stated the deal implies an enterprise value of $258.4 million.

Lumine Group will broaden its reach in North America and globally, accessing Synchronoss’ established customer base and expanding its product offerings.

The deal also marks Lumine Group’s first public company acquisition.

The purchase will include Synchronoss’ white-label cloud platform and its advanced consumer cloud offering.

 It follows Lumine Group’s previous acquisition of Synchronoss’ Messaging and NetworkX businesses in 2023

Synchronoss, which stores more than 200 petabytes of data and serves millions of customers globally, will keep its brand and remain based in Bridgewater, New Jersey.

Founded in 2000, Synchronoss has evolved from a service activation company to a portfolio focused on Tier 1 operator-branded personal cloud services.

The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2026, pending shareholder and regulatory approvals. Synchronoss will be delisted from the Nasdaq stock exchange after the acquisition closes.

The post Lumine Group snags Synchronoss for $116M appeared first on Mobile World Live.

Bloomberg reported the data centre will be developed near the industrial port of Pecem, in the northeastern state of Ceara, in partnership with data centre developer Omnia and renewable energy company Casa dos Ventos.

The news agency explained the Pecem site is close to Fortaleza, a major hub for submarine cables, providing one of the shortest digital routes from Brazil to Europe and Africa.

Bloomberg cited a TikTok representative who stated the project will rely on clean energy from wind energy parks.

The news agency noted Brazil President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has made attracting data centre investments a national priority to fuel AI growth.

In September, Lula signed a provisional measure offering incentives such as tax exemptions on imported equipment for companies building data centres in Brazil.

Lula told Bloomberg the Pecem data centre could serve as an example for additional data centres throughout the country.

In September, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order to split off TikTok from ByteDance, allowing US investors to hold a majority stake in the new entity, but the deal remains in limbo.

Bloomberg reported the government in China agreed a month ago to work with the Trump administration, but has yet to openly support the deal.

The post TikTok to splash $38B on Brazil data centre appeared first on Mobile World Live.

The Swedish vendor stated it will use LotusFlare’s cloud platform, which provides consent management and digital commerce solutions, to help it expose and monetise advanced network capabilities via APIs.

Both companies will use its partnership to provide “common solution blueprints”, designed to accelerate a communication service provider’s journey “towards network API monetisation”.

Niklas Heuveldop, SVP head of business area Global Communications Platform and CEO of Ericsson cloud subsidiary Vonage said it would utilise its own programmable networks, LotusFlare’s network abstraction capabilities and API supergroup Aduna’s aggregation capabilities to drive the API opportunity for CSPs.

“By further strengthening the industry ecosystem, Ericsson is accelerating the potential for CSPs, enterprises and developers to collaborate and innovate at hyperscale, leveraging the full potential of 5G and AI,” he said.

Ericsson added that Vonage would use the accelerated supply of APIs to boost the consumption of new network capabilities by enabling developers and enterprises to build network powered solutions “that turn advanced connectivity into competitive advantage”.

The value of the transaction was not disclosed.

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Vultr is launching an AI supercluster at a data centre in the US state of Ohio.

The companies stated the 50-megawatt cluster of AMD processors is designed to deliver high performance and cost efficiency for AI training and inference.

Vultr CEO J.J. Kardwel stated by investing in the development of racked GPU capacity at scale, the company is “enabling enterprises to push the boundaries of what’s possible with AI and bring next-generation applications”.

Bloomberg reported Vultr will spend more than $1 billion on the data centre supercluster, which is slated to come online in Q1 2026.

The news agency noted Vultr’s cluster operates on a smaller scale than large data centres operated by Microsoft, Google and Meta Platforms, but offers computing power at lower rates.

In January, Verizon Business stated it is using Vultr’s GPU-as-a-service capabilities to power its AI Connect platform.

AMD Ventures co-led a financing round for Vultr in December 2024, which valued the cloud provider at $3.5 billion. 

HPE deal
In other positive news for AMD, HPE announced it reached an agreement to use its Helios AI rack-scale architecture to speed up the deployment of at-scale AI training and inferencing for cloud service providers.

HPE plans to combine AMD’s Helios system with Broadcom’s Tomahawk 6 networking chip to support traffic from trillion-parameter model training, high inference throughput and massive model sizes

Through the partnership, HPE stated its services team can support customers with flexibility, interoperability, energy efficiency, and faster deployments as the demand for AI compute capacity continues to increase.

The post Vultr taps AMD for GPUs to up AI capacity appeared first on Mobile World Live.

The partnership, announced in September, was designed to enable OpenAI to progressively build and deploy at least 10 gigawatts of AI data centres using Nvidia systems representing millions of GPUs.

“We still haven’t completed a definitive agreement, but we’re working with them,” Kress stated at yesterday’s (2 December) UBS Global Technology and AI Conference. “We believe we’ll continue working with OpenAI.”

She noted Nvidia has been a preferred partner for OpenAI for more than a decade.

Kress said on the company’s Q3 earnings call in November her company sees a $500 billion revenue opportunity for its advanced chips by end-2026.

“That half a trillion doesn’t include any of the work that we’re doing right now on the next part of the agreement with OpenAI,” she stated at the conference.

Kress also indicated she does not see a so-called AI investment bubble bursting anytime soon, highlighting Nvidia envisions $3 trillion to $4 trillion in global AI investments by the end of the decade.

“What we see is two to three different major transitions happening in the market,” she explained.

Kress said the economy is “in the early parts” of transitioning to the data centre infrastructure needed to power AI.

“There is also that transition that is going to be necessary for AI including what you need for accelerated computing and focusing on AI and agentic AI,” she said. “But keep in mind that it is only one part of what we see today and we’re going to see that continue to grow through the rest of the decade as well.”

The post Nvidia $100B investment in OpenAI still pending appeared first on Mobile World Live.

This architectural model decomposes the platform into independent, configurable “fractals” – product catalogue elements, permission structures, resource domains, dealer hierarchies and operational workflows. Each fractal can be activated, replicated or customized instantly, dramatically reducing time-to-launch while ensuring full isolation and compliance for every MVNO tenant.

Built on the same foundation, Effortel’s Zero-Cost Migration model removes one of the biggest commercial blockers in the market: migration expenses. By reusing existing platform components and automating key onboarding stages, MVNOs can shift to Effortel’s BSS with minimal disruption and no upfront migration fees.

During the webinar, we will walk through real commercial scenarios that demonstrate how Fractal Multitenancy accelerates MVNO deployment, simplifies operations, and enables a cost-free migration path for operators seeking to modernise their BSS stack.

The post WEBINAR: Launch MVNOs Faster – The Power of Fractal Multitenancy and Effortel’s Zero-Cost Migration Model appeared first on Mobile World Live.

Under the agreement, Nokia will use its Cloud RAN and AI-ready technologies to upgrade the operator’s network in a bid to support rapid 5G rollout, improve performance and achieve more sustainable network operations.

The Finnish vendor will supply its energy-efficient AirScale RAN portfolio, including Habrok Massive MIMO radios and small-cell solutions, to enhance Telefonica’s coverage and boost indoor connectivity. New baseband solutions will also be deployed to strengthen network performance and reliability.

Nokia’s Interleaved Passive Active Antenna technology will be used to simplify site design and speed up 5G deployment. The contract also includes ongoing maintenance and network optimisation services.

Telefonica will continue to use Nokia’s AI-powered network management platform MantaRay NM to monitor and optimise performance across radio, core and transport networks. The pair stated the tool underpins the operator’s ambition to achieve greater AI-powered network automation in the future.

Nokia CEO Justin Hotard said the deal extension will help strengthen Telefonica’s “performance, efficiency and customer experience across their 5G network”, adding that with Nokia’s technology, the operator will be “positioned for long-term competitiveness as the AI supercycle takes hold”.

Hotard has repeatedly referenced the AI supercycle since taking on the role as Nokia boss earlier this year and this month announced a strategic revamp focussed on AI, cloud and next-generation connectivity.

Matthias Sauder, director networks at Telefonica Germany’s consumer brand O2 Telefonica, noted the deal reflects a “shared commitment to advancing 5G technology and creating a more connected and sustainable Germany”.

The post Nokia locks in 5G RAN deal with Telefonica Germany appeared first on Mobile World Live.

The 6G-TakeOff project is a German government-backed initiative exploring how holistic 3D networks could enable the next-generation technology. Deutsche Telekom coordinated the group, which concluded a three-year research programme at the close of August.

Deutsche Telekom stated “important insights” into the potential of 3D networks was gained, involving device handover, local deployment of mobile edge compute, and feederlink technology to connect ground stations with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

O2 Telefonica, Airbus Defence and Space, NXP Semiconductors, Rohde & Schwarz, Boldyn Networks and John Deere are among the big names participating in the initiative along with a host of respected research institutes and universities.

Tested
Thomas Lips, SVP of RAN disaggregation and enablement, said the project “helped us better understand the practical challenges of integrating terrestrial and non-terrestrial components into a unified 3D communication framework”.

Deutsche Telekom explained 3D networks combine terrestrial with non-terrestrial options including HAPS and satellite.

The set-up is designed to optimise connections, using non-terrestrial options to complement ground base stations.

Consortium members developed demonstrations to assess the feasibility of various 3D network elements.

A testbed at the University of Bremen was used to assess device handover in a simulated 3D network.

Project members also demonstrated edge computing works in the 3D set-up, a proof the operator stated means compatible networks can be established on the fly and on a temporary basis.

The consortium also developed fresh antenna designs to connect ground stations and UAVs. The equipment provides a “particularly strong directional focus”, essentially becoming souped-up editions of the beamforming antennas used in feederlinks.

Deutsche Telekom stated the group also developed fresh approaches to steer beams, making the alignment of ground antennas and UAVs more accurate.

A total of seven patent applications have resulted from the consortium’s work to-date and Deutsche Telekom expects the information gathered to contribute to the standardisation of future generations of mobile technology.

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This paper looks at a solution which dramatically reduces the cost of 5G RAN deployment by reducing the number and variety of RUs required for service coverage. Offered as an open O-RU according to O-RAN specifications it could be the final piece of the puzzle that makes Open RAN the preferred deployment model for MNOs in the future.

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Cyril Anand, Chief Executive Officer, discusses the company’s progress since he took the helm one year ago and its objectives for 2026.

The post Interview: Starlink appeared first on Mobile World Live.

At MWC25 Doha Dana Al-Abdulla, National Cyber Policies Affairs Director, discusses the NCSA’s role in strengthening cyber resilience in critical sectors and fostering a trusted environment for Qatar’s digital transformation.

The post Partner Interview: Qatar National Cyber Security Agency appeared first on Mobile World Live.

During MWC25 Doha, Ilya Polshakov (pictured), said the Starlink service provides a crucial point of differentiation for Kyivstar, though emphasised the resilience the satellite connectivity brings is the more important element for a war-torn country where power cuts are frequent.

“If you don’t have connectivity, now you have the possibility to get it”, Polshakov said.

“This is a very big milestone achieved for Ukraine”.

Veon is gearing up to add enhanced data to Kyivstar’s Starlink service, which is initially providing SMS. Polshakov said the plan is to do so in 2026, though highlighted this involves collaboration with OTT app providers to tweak their wares for satellite networks.

The group company also plans to expand availability in 2026, beginning with its operation in Kazakhstan.

Polshakov said Veon opted for Starlink because it already has 650 satellites in orbit, though indicated other service providers could be added in future as they achieve the scale required.

The deployment shows mobile operators should not fear satellite connectivity.

“Satellite connectivity is not [a] separate story, you are combining terrestrial with non-terrestrial” and extending the range of ground-based infrastructure.

Click here to view the full interview, in which Polshakov also discussed the potential to create new business opportunities and the edge terrestrial networks still hold over satellite alternatives.

The post Kyivstar Starlink service attracts 300K users appeared first on Mobile World Live.

The fibre network now serves over 300 communities across 19 states, with more launches planned. The milestone follows Metronet’s acquisition by a JV between T-Mobile and KKR in July.

Under the new ownership, Metronet now operates as a wholesale builder and operator of fibre-optic networks. It serves residential customers multi-gigabit network speeds through a wholesale model and supports T-Mobile US’ Fiber business customers.

To support growth, T-Mobile and Metronet are acquiring other companies, closing the purchase of Minneapolis-based fibre ISP US Internet in September, which marked Metronet’s seventh acquisition in seven years.

Former T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert touted the JV as a “capital light” approach for growing its fixed wireless internet service through deals to buy Metronet and FTTH provider Lumos Networks, the latter of which is also a joint venture.

During the company’s Q3 earnings call in October, former COO Srini Gopalan did not rule out M&A for additional fibre deals or joint ventures before taking over as CEO on 1 November.

As of Q3, T-Mobile is targeting 12 million FWA customers by 2028 and 12 million to 15 million homes passed through the fibre JVs. 

The post T-Mobile US fibre JV Metronet crosses 3M locations appeared first on Mobile World Live.

The vendor integrated its 7750 Service Router with a Broadband Network Gateway and Carrier Grade NAT functionality, a set-up it stated positions RailTel to handle enterprise-grade high-speed traffic and internal ISP offerings.

Nokia also deployed its 1830 Photonic Service Switch and transponder technology, delivering a “substantial increase in transport capacity” while keeping cost per bit to a minimum.

RailTel’s existing infrastructure and unused channel spectrum were added to the mix, and Nokia delivered Lambda transmission and “express traffic lanes between cities”.

The work spanned the entirety of RailTel’s DWDM National Long-Distance network.

Sanjai Kumar, RailTel chair and MD, said the project is a “pivotal step” in modernising its systems.

Adding Nokia’s technologies to its existing infrastructure provides RailTel the efficiency needed to “deliver superior, faster and more reliable services” to enterprise and broadband customers, he said.

RailTel is a central public enterprise within the Ministry of Railways which set out to modernise rail communications and since evolved into an ICT service provider.

It operates a nationwide fibre network of more than 64,000km and two Tier-3-certified data centres.

The post Nokia boosts RailTel India optical network appeared first on Mobile World Live.

The companies stated the sale would position FiberPass to meet growing demand for FTTH services, boosting the quality and availability for consumer and business customers.

Proposed terms would see Telefonica retain control of FiberPass, with its stake reducing from 63 per cent to 55 per cent. Vodafone Spain’s holding would fall from 37 per cent to 5 per cent, with AXA IM Alts to then hold 40 per cent.

Telefonica noted 30 per cent of its remaining stake would be held by its Spanish division and 25 per cent its infrastructure unit.

Vodafone Spain and Telefonica launched FiberPass in March. It currently passes 3.7 million premises and is used by 1.4 million of the operators’ customers.

Financial institutions BBVA and Barclays advised Vodafone Spain and Telefonica Espana, with Rothschild & Co acting for AXA IM Alts.

Mark Gilligan, head of infrastructure at AXA IM Alts, said the company first invested in FTTH operations in 2018 and provides a service in France which passes 7 million homes.

“Fibre-to-the-home is central to our digital infrastructure strategy,” he said, highlighting demand is growing due to streaming and remote working, along with IoT uses.

He said the FiberPass deal is “a rare opportunity to scale in one of Europe’s most advanced FTTH markets and within a sector that is estimated to nearly double to $110 billion globally by 2030”.

The post Telefonica, Vodafone add Spanish fibre investor appeared first on Mobile World Live.

Rory O’Toole, VP Global Sales Telecommunications, discusses the key trends in the MVNO market and how Druid Software serves this fast evolving sector.

The post Partner Interview: Druid appeared first on Mobile World Live.

The preview programme allows enterprise customers to test Amazon Leo services and hardware to provide it with additional feedback and enable it to tailor its offerings.

Early participants include airline JetBlue, rural connectivity provider Vanu and clean energy company Hunt Energy Network.

Amazon states its new Leo Ultra is the fastest commercial phased array antenna available, offering download rates of up to 1Gb/s and up to 400Mb/s upload.

The antenna is powered by a custom silicon chip designed by Amazon Leo, using the company’s proprietary RF design and signal processing algorithms.

Amazon Leo offers two main private networking services. With Direct to AWS, cloud customers can connect to their workloads using a transit or direct connect gateway through a point-and-click interface on the Leo web console.

The company states the approach reduces latency and simplifies management.

Enterprises and telecoms service providers can also establish private network interconnects at major colocation facilities to connect remote locations directly to their data centres or core networks, reducing deployment time from months to days.

Amazon Leo currently has 150 birds in orbit, with a goal of launching half of its planned total of 3,236 satellites by July 2026, as required by the US Federal Communications Commission.

In addition to Space X’s Starlink, Amazon Leo faces competition EchoStar, AST SpaceMobile, Lynk Global/Omnispace and SES.

The post Amazon Leo previews satellite service appeared first on Mobile World Live.

Speaking on a panel at the Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix, Saw explained five years from now digital twins will help engineers work out the aerodynamics of their cars outside of wind tunnels.

Current wind tunnels cannot duplicate the conditions across all of the racing series’ 24 tracks.

“You could be out just by a whisker and you would lose like a full second, which is like disastrous,” he said. “The point I’m trying to make is that getting engineering aerodynamics right at 200 miles an hour is not easy.”

Saw noted the regulatory body of F1 periodically changes the design specifications teams must adhere to.

“It’s almost like a crapshoot despite millions of dollars spent on that,” he said. “And now there’s a new spec coming up in a few months. Imagine if you’re able to create an AI digital twin of the car.”

Good intentions
Combining digital twins of the cars and tracks with AI intent-based networking will allow the teams to run through millions of simulations of every possible condition.

Operators including T-Mobile are ushering in the age of intent-based networking where AI agents are in every element working together to meet the needs of every customer.

“If you translate that to F1 racing, it means that we may have AI agents that are in charge of every aspect of the car,” he said.

“And suddenly you’re going to have an AI-assisted design car and you can actually drive that at home too.”

In addition to aerodynamics, digital twins combined with AI will measure drag, performance and tyre wear.

Saw said more data would be collected during practice runs by some of the top drivers in the world.

“You put in weather conditions and temperature for the weekend,” he said “Suddenly you’re going to have AI recommendations for race strategy, tyre wear strategy and fuel management.”

“Suddenly the race engineer now has an AI core.”

Digital twins could also be used to train drivers in the future.

“Don’t tell Lando [Norris] I said that, but future F1 drivers could be trained on digital twins, not on go-cart racing tracks when they were 11,” Saw said.

The post T-Mobile US races towards F1 digital twins appeared first on Mobile World Live.

Kyivstar customers with standard 4G smartphones will now be able to stay connected in areas where terrestrial networks are down, damaged or out of reach. The initial phase enables SMS services, with voice and data set to follow in 2026.

The operator highlighted the importance of the technology amid the country’s ongoing war with Russia, stating it will be crucial in regions facing prolonged blackouts, recently de-occupied territories undergoing network restoration and areas used for rescue and humanitarian missions. Businesses operating in hard-to-access areas will also benefit.

Ukraine’s minister of digital transformation Mykhailo Fedorov hailed the launch as “an important step in developing infrastructure that will ensure connectivity even in areas without traditional networks”. He also highlighted the pressures of wartime conditions, pointing to “constant Russian attacks on infrastructure, blackouts and network damage”.

Kyivstar CEO Oleksandr Komarov said it marks an upgrade to national resilience, noting the operator’s existing system of batteries and generators already provide up to ten hours of backup coverage during grid failures. With D2D satellite connectivity, he said Kyivstar is “enhancing this resilience significantly” with “a vital functionality that is critical for our people.”

The service is available at no extra cost to subscribers with a 4G smartphone across Ukraine, excluding occupied areas, border regions and active combat zones.

The commercial debut comes ten months after the pair struck a deal to introduce space-based connectivity in the country. In August, the partners conducted a pilot in Ukraine’s Zhytomyr region, where Komarov and Fedorov used standard 4G smartphones to exchange messages through Starlink’s D2D technology.

Following the pilot, Kyivstar said that Starlink’s D2D data service, which will support video communication through messaging apps, remains under development.

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The reports indicate the two-year trial was announced by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) during the fifth China 5G + Industrial Internet conference, a three-day event which closed on 23 November.

Companies which meet government criteria can apply to offer commercial services within current legal and regulatory frameworks.

Yicai Global stated China hopes to advance its aerospace economy by boosting the variety of satellite communications equipment, along with ascertaining the business case for the remote IoT option.

An expert told the outlet there may be benefits for agricultural and emergency services, and predicted the trial would attract more investment in all aspects of the satellite sector.

Tech in Asia added maritime, aquaculture, logistics and energy to the list of sectors the trial could benefit.

The outlet noted the satellite IoT trial is commencing three months after the MIIT released details of likely rules and regulations covering the sector to encourage growth by simplifying requirements to enter the market.

Global Times noted the government is also keen to ensure security and hopes to spur an economy based on low-altitude communications.

Yicai Global reported most satellite IoT runs on low Earth orbit birds, with key domestic names including China Unicom among the companies operating constellations in the range.

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