Mobile & Wireless Roundup No. 156

Welcome to the 156th edition of this newsletter. I read a lot of newsletters and other content online, and one thing that always catches me out is the offer to download a report. Naturally, I click on it, only to be presented with a long form to fill in. In many cases, this is from an email newsletter I already subscribe to.

Having to complete a form, especially from a tracked link that should already know who I am, is frustrating. If you’re a website owner or work in a marketing department, perhaps you could check whether the process of downloading white papers, reports and similar material can be simplified.

Marketing teams often collect these numbers to show other executives or departments how successful their campaigns have been, but is that really the right metric for success? I’ve seen some excellent videos on YouTube with over 100,000 views but fewer than 100 likes. Does that mean those videos aren’t good enough?

Some of you may know that we have what I would call a reasonably successful YouTube channel. Over the years, many content creators have asked whether this is a good enough strategy to stop working full-time. Frankly, the amount of revenue we make is so small (partly my fault, as I don’t like adding too many ads, especially mid-rolls and banner ads that spoil the viewing experience) that it might be easier to work an extra day a year to earn more than all the ad channels combined pay.

Of course, this could all change when Gen AI starts making videos better than people. Gen AI will likely be able to create videos that explain topics or answer questions people have, but originality and innovation might be lost. Maybe one day YouTube will even add a filter to search for non–Gen AI videos. Who knows.

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

⦿ 6G

• Free 6G Training: 5G Evolution and the Road to 6G – Insights from NTT DOCOMO (link)

• FNS 6G: Today marks the official launch of the National 6G Testbed in the Netherlands (link)

• Free 6G Training: LG Electronics on 6G Vision, Core Technologies and Standardisation Approach (link)

⦿ 5G

• ZDNet: T-Mobile may be the first carrier to phase out 4G - what it means for your phone (link)

• Light Reading: Charter takes 5G-over-HFC to the test (link)

• Fierce Network - 5G SA paves way for more 5G voice, slicing: analyst (link)

• Verizon Business White Paper: A network reference architecture for the evolving connected hospital (link)

• AT&T Blog: AT&T 5G Standalone Nationwide (link)

• Light Reading: YTL makes history with Malaysia's first commercial 5G Advanced service (link)

• Michael Thelander on LinkedIn: "Here is a Fun Fact (from the just released Signals Flash report). In the 3GPP SA feasibility study on new services and markets for 5G, there are, by my count, 72 use cases. The list includes connected vehicles (#33), wireless briefcase (#39), home monitoring (#41), cloud robotics (#44), industrial factory automation (#45), UAV collaboration (#54) and telemedicine (#68), to name a few…" (link)

• Chris Cockings on LinkedIn - Field Testing: 5G NSA in the Real World - 1 Gbps with 3-Carrier Aggregation (link)

• The 3G4G Blog: Seamless UE Context Recovery (SUECR) in 3GPP Release 18 (link)

⦿ 4G/LTE

• Developing Telecoms: PLDT’s Smart launches ViLTE-powered video calls (link)

• ABC News: More Optus triple-0 call failures on new dates, customers reveal (link)

⦿ Private Networks

• RCR Wireless: As promised – Airbus deploys private 5G in France and Germany, set to scale globally (link) – Ericsson PR here.

• Private Networks Technology Blog: Smart Port Innovation Accelerates Across China (link)

• Transforma Insights: Private 5G adoption has been slower than expected but is now gaining momentum (link)

⦿ Spectrum

• Verizon accelerates fixed wireless broadband expansion with acquisition of Starry (PR) – Starry provides of mmWave FWA to multi-dwelling units (MDUs) with nearly 100k customers.

• RCR Wireless: Vietnam unlocks ‘golden’ spectrum for 6G, Wi-Fi 7 (link)

⦿ Telecoms Infrastructure, Small Cells, Antennas & others

• TelecomTV: Indigenous tech fuels BSNL’s revival (link)

• Paul Rhodes on LinkedIn - Tuesday Towers: In GDC We Trust! (link)

• Dell’Oro Blog: Worldwide Telecom Equipment Revenue Up 4% in 1H25 (link)

• Cisco Sets Benchmark with Industry's Most Scalable, Efficient 51.2T Routing Systems for Distributed AI Workloads (PR)

• Paul Rhodes on LinkedIn - Thursday School: Urban Densification II! (link)

• Omdia Market Landscape: RAN Vendors 2025 (link)

⦿ IoT / M2M / Smart Homes

• Afzal Mangal on LinkedIn: "This is what a customer thinks after you showed how your IoT solution saves dozens of field visits* per day…" (link)

• 5G-Advanced Store and Forward (S&F): Enabling Resilient IoT Communications via Satellite (link)

• Afzal Mangal on LinkedIn: "Why we should talk about IoT with our customers…" (link)

• Chris Cockings on LinkedIn - Field Testing: MO SMS Over NAS - IoT-Friendly and IMS-Free (link)

⦿ Security & Privacy

• Denis Laskov on LinkedIn - SIM card and its cyber secrets: how to analyze and attack this small network-connected computer (link)

• Nokia Threat Intelligence Report 2025 (link, PDF)

• Denis Laskov on LinkedIn: Cybersecurity analysis of brain-computer interfaces (BCIs): attacks, risks, and recommended actions (link)

• Dmitry Kurbatov on LinkedIn: The Airport’s Private 5G Crash (link)

• Commsrisk: USA Finally Considers Blocking Inbound International Calls That Spoof Domestic Numbers (link)

• Jos Wetzels on LinkedIn: "Following our talk at this year's Black Hat USA, we are finally publishing the full paper and code for our research on 𝗧𝗘𝗧𝗥𝗔 𝗘𝗻𝗱-𝘁𝗼-𝗘𝗻𝗱 𝗘𝗻𝗰𝗿𝘆𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 (𝗘𝟮𝗘𝗘) used by the most sensitive users 𝘴𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘢𝘴 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘤𝘦𝘴. …" (link)

⦿ Connected And Autonomous Vehicles (CAVs)

• Developing Telecoms: Airtel Africa trials satellite internet on a moving train (link)

⦿ Smartphones, Devices, Wearables & Gadgets

• First at Deutsche Telekom: eSIM transfer between Android and iOS (link)

• Humanoid Robots: “Vision and Reality” Paper Published by IFR (PR)

• Nick vs Networking: Simple trick to increase coverage: Lying to users about signal strength (link)

• Light Reading: Huawei goes 'utterly bonkers' in latest mobile predictions (link)

• Nick Jones on LinkedIn: "If you also spend a good chunk of your life dealing with SIM profiles, you've no doubt struggled to debug issues in the Electrical Profile on an eSIM as you can't see what's going on…" (link)

⦿ AI, ML & Automation

• Operator Watch Blog: CelcomDigi’s Journey Toward AI-Powered Autonomous Operations for Enhanced Customer Experience (link)

• Light Reading: Don't expect AI to boost telco profits after automation's failure (link)

• Dean Bubley on LinkedIn: "I'm unconvinced by a lot of the narrative about AI-led data traffic growth, either on fixed networks or especially mobile…" (link)

• Jun Song on LinkedIn: Why 6G O-RAN Needs a New AI/ML Framework Now (link)

⦿ Satellites, HAPS, Drones, UAVs & Space

• Sateliot and Nordic achieve a historic milestone by connecting for the first time a cellular 5G IoT device from low-Earth orbit satellites (PR)

⦿ Wi-Fi

• Ookla - Fast Trains, Slow Wi-Fi: The Reality of Onboard Connectivity in Europe and Asia (link)

• DSA Case Study: Wi-Fi’s Critical Role in Modern Healthcare (PDF)

⦿ Metaverse & Extended Reality (XR)

• Bloomberg: Apple shelves Vision Pro revamp in pursuit of AI glasses to rival Meta (link)

⦿ Public Safety Networks

• Orange Business strengthens its SafetyCase units with Eutelsat’s OneWeb satellite connectivity to deliver sovereign, resilient communications in crisis situations (PR)

• Wireless Broadband Alliance Enhances Emergency Services Communications in Challenging Environments (PR) – Dean Bubley’s take on this on LinkedIn here.

⦿ Other News and Technology Stuff

• The Guardian: Way past its prime: how did Amazon get so rubbish? (link)

• RCR Wireless: “Fully connected” – BMW opens “most innovative” AI car factory in Hungary (link) – BMW PR here.

• Radio Free Mobile: OpenAI & AMD – Power Dynamic (link)

• Ryan Jeffery on LinkedIn: Can you predict the Next 40 years of OSS/BSS? The Lindy Effect might help (link)

⦿ Picture of the week: The UK mobile operator Virgin Media O2 has switched on a first-of-its-kind mobile Giga Site in Paddington, London, designed to provide customers with a faster and more reliable mobile experience. The site uses Nokia’s advanced dual-band massive MIMO technology and combines multiple spectrum layers, including low, mid and high bands, along with new spectrum acquired through Virgin Media O2’s deal with Vodafone UK. The Giga Site is shown below, and you can read more about it 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.