Mobile & Wireless Roundup No. 150

Welcome to the 150th edition of this newsletter. Last week I mentioned the AI bubble and this week it seems closer than ever. An MIT report has found that 95 percent of enterprise generative AI pilots are failing. The problem is less about model quality and more about integration. While tools like ChatGPT work well for individuals, enterprises struggle because generic systems do not adapt to workflows. Companies also appear to be investing in the wrong areas, with most budgets going into sales and marketing tools, even though the biggest savings are in back-office automation.

The report arrived just as OpenAI’s Sam Altman warned that investors are overexcited about AI, drawing comparisons to the dot-com crash. His comments came while OpenAI is negotiating a valuation of 500 billion dollars, higher than Walmart or ExxonMobil, despite heavy losses. At the same time, he talks of spending trillions on data centres and serving billions of daily users, an ambition that looks optimistic given Facebook’s three billion monthly active users.

The combination of the MIT findings and Altman’s remarks unsettled markets, with AI stocks already at extreme valuations. For example, Palantir trades at 280 times forward earnings, far above what was considered bubble territory during the dot-com era.

Klarna has also been in the news after replacing 700 workers with AI last year. It was reportedly looking to bring some of them back to improve customer service, highlighting the limits of relying solely on automation.

What seems clear is that while some startups are thriving by solving specific problems, most enterprises are struggling with AI deployment. For those of us in the wider tech industry, the lesson remains the same. If you understand the basics well, there are always opportunities, though sometimes you may have to look harder for them.

For those of you who don’t know me, I am a technologist with over 25 years’ experience in mobile wireless technology, currently working as an independent advisor, analyst, consultant and a trainer. This newsletter is a summary of my posts and other news that caught my attention since the last newsletter.

⦿ 6G

• Multi-Radio Spectrum Sharing (MRSS) and/or Dual-Stack for Initial 6G Rollouts (link)

• Free 6G Training: Samsung Pushes Boundaries of 6G MIMO (link)

⦿ 5G

• The 3G4G Blog: Understanding L1/L2 Triggered Mobility (LTM) Procedure in 3GPP Release 18 (link)

⦿ 4G/LTE

• Chris Cockings on LinkedIn - Field Testing: Tracking Area Update (Periodic) (link)

⦿ Open & Disaggregated Networks (including Open RAN, vRAN, etc.)

• RtBrick: 8 in 10 Telco Leaders Believe Today’s Networks Can’t Handle Future Bandwidth Growth (link)

• O-RAN ALLIANCE and Ministry of Communications and Information Technology of Saudi Arabia join forces to drive Open RAN adoption in Saudi Arabia (link)

⦿ Spectrum

• PNG Haus Bung: PNG Launches First 5g Spectrum To Boost Digital Connectivity (link)

• Developing Telecoms: Turkey’s 5G spectrum auction is due in October (link)

⦿ Private Networks

• Private Networks Technology Blog - IT and OT Convergence: Opportunities and Security Risks for Private Networks (link)

⦿ Telecoms Infrastructure, Small Cells, Antennas & others

• MIT News: A shape-changing antenna for more versatile sensing and communication (link)

• Paul Rhodes on LinkedIn - Monday Musings: Lattice See (link)

• Operator Watch Blog: SIMBA Telecom to Acquire M1 in Singapore’s First Major Consolidation (link)

• Ken Schmidt on LinkedIn: "A few weeks ago, I shared a post about American Tower’s criteria for an edge site—2.5 acres, flat, not in a floodplain, with fiber and power—and it sparked a lot of discussion. That response got us thinking even more about what really makes a tower site viable for edge…" (link)

• Paul Rhodes on LinkedIn - Thursday School: Network Congestion (link) 

⦿ IoT / M2M / Smart Homes

• Transforma Insights: Connected Batteries and IoT combine for smarter energy management (link)

• Huawei Blog - From Connectivity to Profits: Monetizing Ambient IoT (link)

• RCR Wireless: ‘The tech wars are over’ – The Things Industries blows out some IoT candles (link)

⦿ Security & Privacy

• The Register: Boffins say tool can sniff 5G traffic, launch 'attacks' without using rogue base stations (link)

• Denis Laskov on LinkedIn: "Extracting the seed from secure elements for your crypto wallet, IoT, healthcare, and automotive systems…" (link)

• Bleeping Computer: Orange Belgium discloses data breach impacting 850,000 customers (link)

• Dmitry Kurbatov on LinkedIn - Direct 5G Attack: Sniffing & Hijacking (link)

• Commsrisk: Third Thai SMS Blaster Bust in 2 Weeks; Second Vietnamese Bust in a Week (link)

• Denis Laskov on LinkedIn: "Aircraft cybersecurity: from real-world attacks (such as spoofing ADS-B or exploiting ACARS) to modern hacking techniques…" (link)

• Computer Weekly: Warlock claims more victims as cyber attacks hit Colt and Orange (link)

• Denis Laskov on LinkedIn - Tesla cars: how to add and activate a custom SIM in the Model 3, Model Y, and Cybertruck step by step (link)

⦿ Connected And Autonomous Vehicles (CAVs)

• GSMA: MWC25 Shanghai Low Altitude Summit and Intelligent Summit catchup (link)

⦿ Smartphones, Devices, Wearables & Gadgets

• Samir Khazaka - Beyond Huawei: China’s Smartphone Market Is Localizing Its Entire Stack (link)

⦿ AI, ML & Automation

• RCR Wireless Bookmarks: Network automation — six levels, five blockers, four questions (link)

• MWL: SoftBank hails test as AI RAN breakthrough (link) – PR here.

⦿ Satellites, HAPS, Drones, UAVs & Space

• MWL Analysis: Is AST SpaceMobile launch schedule a pipedream? (link)

• NTT Technical Review, June 2025: Improving Mobile Communication Service Quality Using Non-terrestrial Networks (link)

• Space.com: China launches 8th batch of satellites for 13,000-strong internet megaconstellation (link)

• TelecomTV: Satellite comms pioneer Skylo expands its D2D ecosystem (link)

 ⦿ Public Safety Networks

• Urgent Communications: 3GPP focuses on Release 20 6G and 5G-Advanced, including key public-safety needs (link)

⦿ Quantum Networks & Technology

• James Crawshaw on LinkedIn: "I've been following quantum-related announcements in the telecom industry for a while and decided to write a report on the topic…" (link)

⦿ Sustainability

• Benedict Evans on LinkedIn: "Average energy consumption for a Gemini text query: 0.24 Wh. Which is the same as about 9 seconds of watching TV. And has declined 33x in the last year…" (link)

⦿ Other News and Technology Stuff

• The Guardian: Chatbot given power to close ‘distressing’ chats to protect its ‘welfare’ (link)

• Benedict Evans on LinkedIn: "I've been making this chart for a few years now, and to me the surge and then collapse of warehousing is as striking as the surge in data centres. All that pandemic over-building…" (link)

• Tech Brew: Peak Energy launches first grid-scale sodium ion battery in the U.S. (link)

• Ryan Jeffery on LinkedIn - The Iteration Game: Which Surprising Telco Assets get more Valuable over Time? (link)

⦿ Picture of the week: In one of his brilliant posts, Paul Rhodes wrote briefly about 'The Other APT'. The red phone box looked similar to those in the UK, but instead of a metal or steel frame it was made of concrete. Wikipedia provides a concise summary here.

Happy to hear your thoughts. Feel free let me know what worked, what didn’t, how I can make this better, etc. Get in touch over LinkedIn!

PDF version of this and previous newsletters are available here.