Mobile & Wireless Roundup No. 160

Welcome to the 160th edition of this newsletter. You have probably heard me talk about training many times before, especially about the importance of properly training junior staff and providing them with the right support. However, there is another group of employees who often face different kinds of challenges, whether physical or mental, and they deserve just as much consideration and inclusion.

Recently, there was a story in the UK about a man who had worked for years as an unpaid shelf stacker at a supermarket. When he finally asked for a paid role, not only was he turned down, but he was also told not to return. Fortunately, another supermarket with a stronger focus on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) took him on instead.

I am not here to lecture anyone on how companies should handle such situations, but I have often seen that teams sometimes fail to make an effort to include people with different needs and to treat them as valued members of the organisation. True inclusion starts at the top. It is the responsibility of senior leaders, directors and managers to set the example for their teams.

Over the years, I have seen many people with different abilities and strengths truly shine once they understand the bigger picture – what they are doing and how it fits into the wider goals of the organisation. This is where training, along with guidance and mentorship, plays a crucial role in fostering inclusion and growth for everyone.

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

⦿ 6G

• From 0 to PHY: Keysight’s View on Innovating Ahead of the 6G Standard (link)

• Nokia Blog - 6G: Your passport to the immersive experience revolution (link)

• Free 6G Training: Understanding the ATIS Vision for Integrated Sensing and Communications (link)

⦿ 5G

• Huawei Commercially Verifies World's First Sub-1 GHz Massive MIMO (PR)

• 3GPP: Plenary progress on Rel-19 freeze (link)

⦿ 4G/LTE

• Rudolf van der Berg on LinkedIn: "A woman in Australia couldn't call emergency services when burglars entered her home. The cause; an iPhone 13 with a T-Mobile USA SIM…" (link)

• Nick Jones on LinkedIn: "Always odd seeing niche telecom topics discussed in public discourse, but with all talk about the failed emergency calls that happened recently in Australia, here's a tales from the trenches from last year about our experience with getting VoLTE emergency calling working reliably for all roamers…" (link)

• Rudolf van der Berg on LinkedIn: "There was an unnoticed 13 hour failing of emergency calling on the network of Optus in Australia last month…" (link)

• Chris Cockings on LinkedIn - Field Testing: SIB1 systemInfoValueTag - When Nothing Changes, Don’t Re-read (link)

⦿ 2G/3G

• Adam Cousin on LinkedIn: "Having issues in the #UK with #IoT devices that were working fine last week on Virgin Media O2 and yet this week they aren’t?… a few friendly Tips and Tricks to try to get things moving again!…" (link)

⦿ Private Networks

• Private Networks Technology Blog - ZTE’s Independent Private 5G Network: Architecture, Capabilities and Real-World Deployment (link)

• Novologistica: The Port Authority of Valencia awards Orange the contract for the deployment of its private 5G network (link)

• Private Networks Technology Blog: Hitachi’s Private 5G Powers Digital Manufacturing in Maryland (link)

• Private Networks Technology Blog: Industrial 5G for Rail Maintenance at Deutsche Bahn (link)

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

• Telecom TV: Deutsche Telekom preps RFQ for 30k RAN sites (link)

• Digital Catapult: International Open RAN vendors to scale advanced connectivity solutions in the UK (PR)

• MWL: Deutsche Telekom, AT&T detail open RAN evolution (link)

• Light Reading - FYUZ wrap: Endless journeys, uncertain destinations and shrinkage (link)

⦿ Spectrum

• Light Reading: FCC wants to auction up to 180MHz in upper C-band (link)

• Heise online - WLAN Rejection: Germany Favors Mobile for Upper 6 GHz Band (link) – follow the LinkedIn discussion on this here.

• Light Reading: EchoStar sells more spectrum to SpaceX, launches 'capital' unit (link)

• Opensignal - Connecting a Digital Türkiye: 5G Auction Marks a Turning Point in Connectivity (link)

⦿ Telecoms Infrastructure, Small Cells, Antennas & others

• Paul Rhodes on LinkedIn - Thursday School: Beer and (Mobile) Broadband! (link)

• Paul Rhodes on LinkedIn - Sunday School: Neutral host or Neutral-Host? (link)

⦿ IoT / M2M / Smart Homes

• The 3G4G Blog: AIoT and A-IoT (link)

⦿ Virtualization, Cloud & Edge

• ETSI MEC First Phase 4 Specifications and White Paper further integrates open-source and standards for edge clouds (PR)

⦿ Security & Privacy

• Denis Laskov on LinkedIn - Using drones to attack critical infrastructure from the air: custom-built sUAVs and insights (link)

• Commsrisk: SMS Blaster and IMSI-catcher News from Lebanon, Cambodia, Switzerland and the Philippines (link)

• Denis Laskov on LinkedIn: How to build an RF hacking station: supports Bluetooth/LoRa/4G/5G, fits in a backpack, ~€600 (link)

• Dmitry Kurbatov on LinkedIn: Weaponizing SIM Cards (link)

• Denis Laskov on LinkedIn - Hacking Marine Radar Systems (MRS): Cybersecurity challenges of modern ships (link)

• Dmitry Kurbatov on LinkedIn: "…There is a “1-10-100 rule”, fixing a bug in development costs $1, in QA costs $10, but in production costs $100. Vulnerabilities are the same bugs…" (link)

• Denis Laskov on LinkedIn - BLE chip leaks AES keys through RF signals: a successful remote side-channel attack (link)

• Silke Holtmanns on LinkedIn: "The KT telecom incident with the femtocells took a dark turn. They were used to access the core. The malware was the same type as used against SK telecom. Also customer information was on the infected servers…" (link)

⦿ Connected And Autonomous Vehicles (CAVs)

• New Atlas: eHang's pilotless eVTOL air taxi takes flight with 125-mile range (link)

• Light Reading: NTT sets up unit to accelerate autonomous driving across Japan (link)

⦿ Smartphones, Devices, Wearables & Gadgets

• KDDI: Apple Watch (GPS + Cellular model) now supports au Starlink Direct (link)

⦿ AI, ML & Automation

• Operator Watch Blog: Building and Scaling AI the Cloud Native Way at Singtel (link)

• FutureNet Insights - News in Brief: AI produces stellar valuations, ROI is very much work in progress (link)

• Tommy Björkberg on LinkedIn: The "Garbage In, Gospel Out" Problem: Why AI is Choking on Telecom's Legacy (link)

⦿ Satellites, HAPS, Drones, UAVs & Space

• Fierce Network Opinion: Welcome to the secret society of satellite spectrum (link)

• BT Group and Starlink pave the way for high-speed home broadband in the UK’s hardest to reach places (PR)

• Light Reading: Vodafone and AST SpaceMobile advance plan to take on Starlink in Europe (link) – Official PR here.

⦿ Wi-Fi

• Ookla: Cruise Ship Wi-Fi Steams Ahead (link)

• Mohamed Abbas on LinkedIn: Wi-Fi 7 MLO (Multi-Link Operation) is a Game Changer in the WiFi Industry (link)

• Dean Bubley on LinkedIn: I enjoyed doing this podcast on #wifi - and especially #6GHz spectrum (link)

⦿ Other News and Technology Stuff

• IEEE Spectrum: AI Models Fail Miserably at This One Easy Task: Telling Time (link)

• Matt Walker on LinkedIn: Telcos are spending less, earning more, and betting big on AI (link)

• Fredrik Jungermann on LinkedIn: "The mobile data traffic boom is now definitely over. The usage growth is declining sharply, faster than I thought it would - although Tefficient 🚥's reports spotted the trend a year ago already…" (link) – William Webb on this topic here.

• Juniper Research: Top 10 Telecoms & Connectivity Trends 2026 (link)

⦿ Picture of the week: Historia Telefonía has shared some lovely pictures of a phone box in the Al Ras neighbourhood of Dubai. You can see their post on X 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.