Mobile & Wireless Roundup No. 161

Welcome to the 161st edition of this newsletter. The big talking point this week was the discovery that Samsung fridges with large display screens began showing ads after a recent software update. These episodes are often used to test reactions before anyone confirms whether it was intentional or an oversight. Big companies regularly push the boundaries to see what society will tolerate. Even if something like this stays live for only a short time, the feedback gathered from the surprise factor alone can be valuable when assessing public sentiment.

Many moons ago, when I was exploring the feasibility of live broadcasting to handsets and tablets, I spent time looking at different advertising models. The thinking then was that one day certain appliances could even be offered at very low cost, or with cashbacks, in return for accepting ads. Now that our digital world is shifting deeper into subscriptions, especially on our personal devices and computers, the idea of ad supported hardware feels far more plausible. I would not be surprised if some appliances eventually arrive with cheap subscription plans where ads help subsidise the cost.

What makes this especially interesting is that we are entering a phase where monetisation is being reimagined across the board. We are already used to the idea that services can be free if we tolerate ads. Moving this mindset to household devices is a significant step. A fridge or washing machine that becomes cheaper because it is tied to an ad supported subscription model could be attractive for some families, particularly when combined with rising living costs. The trade-off between convenience, affordability and privacy will be at the centre of these decisions.

At the same time, this shift may encourage a counter movement. Some people will want to avoid anything smart and instead opt for simple, manual, non-connected products. That market will exist and may even grow as people tire of constant data collection and on screen prompts. Whether it becomes a sizeable segment or remains a niche alternative will depend on how far manufacturers push these new monetisation models and how society responds.

For those of you who are new here, I am a technologist with more than 25 years of experience in mobile wireless technology, working today as an independent advisor, analyst, consultant and trainer. This newsletter brings together my posts and other stories that stood out to me since the last edition.

⦿ 4G/LTE

• Nick vs Networking: Tales from the Trenches – IMS Communication Service Identifier (ICSI) (link)

• Chris Cockings on LinkedIn - Field Testing: UE Capability Enquiry - When the Network Asks First (link)

⦿ 5G

• RCR Wireless: du, Nokia, and MediaTek hit 6.3 Gbps in 5G speed trial (link)

• Michael Thelander on LinkedIn: "In our most recent Signals Ahead report Emil Olbrich and I take readers 15,600 kilometers by airplane to Asia where we conducted a multi-operator benchmark study of the three operators’ networks in Singapore…" (link)

⦿ 6G

• Merouane Debbah on LinkedIn: "🚀 The UAE has launched its bold National 6G Initiative and I’m truly honoured to play a role in this historic journey…" (link)

• Michael Thelander on LinkedIn: "Last week I attended the Brooklyn 6G Summit, which Nokia and the NYU Tandon School of Engineering have been sponsoring for the last twelve years. It started off as the Brooklyn 5G Summit…" (link)

• Fierce Network: 6G radio testing? 7 GHz does it! (link)

• Dimitri (Dima) Gold on LinkedIn: "If you’ve ever wondered why 3GPP needed to update UE antenna and near-field blocking models — and how the new approach works — our latest #Nokia white paper has you covered…" (link)

• Free 6G Training: Spotlight on 3GPP Release 20 and the Bridge to 6G (link)

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

• Keith Dyer on LinkedIn: "Have an MVNO business with 12 million customers. Build an Open RAN network. Migrate all those MVNO customers to the Open RAN network and then you have the most populous Open RAN network in the world…" (link)

• MWL: Telefonica underlines open RAN commitment (link)

• OREX SAI and SURGE Launch Full-Scale 5G FWA Deployment to Deliver Affordable Internet Across Indonesia (PR)

⦿ Spectrum

• Radio Frequency, Band and Spectrum - A detailed tutorial looking at spectrum, including 5G & 6G (link)

• Laura Sear on LinkedIn: "A big win for the european mobile industry this week. An RSPG recommendation (which will be published soon) says that 540 MHz should be allocated to the mobile service. The remaining bottom 160 MHz will be decided on after WRC-27…" (link)

⦿ Private Networks

• Private Networks Technology Blog: Ericsson’s Private 5G Powering JLR’s Smart Manufacturing Ambitions (link)

⦿ Telecoms Infrastructure, Small Cells, Antennas & others

• Telecoms Infrastructure Blog: ZTE’s Magic Pole Brings Smart Infrastructure to Kazakhstan (link)

• Paul Rhodes on LinkedIn - Tuesday Towers: A Date with Coverage! (link)

• Peter Clarke on LinkedIn: "The Three in VodafoneThree: dramatic performance transformation to gigabit and beyond for Vodafone customers through MOCN activation of Three UK and Cellnex UK Phase 8 Monopole 5G…" (link)

• Paul Rhodes on LinkedIn - Thursday School: Spot the Data Centre! (link)

• Telecoms Infrastructure Blog: Vodafone’s 5G Advertising Pillars Bring Connectivity to Urban Streets (link)

⦿ IoT / M2M / Smart Homes

• RCR Wireless: Big tech’s big problem with IoT – as PTC sells Kepware, ThingWorx for up to $725m (link)

• Matt Hatton on LinkedIn - Proprietary vs standard: an age old dilemma with resonance for satellite IoT (link)

⦿ Virtualization, Cloud & Edge

• Telco Cloud Manifesto by Omdia: Building an intelligent telco cloud infrastructure for service innovation in the mobile AI era (link)

⦿ Security & Privacy

• Huawei Blog - Smart Tech vs Smart Threats: Cybersecurity in the Age of AI (link)

• Anthropic: Disrupting the first reported AI-orchestrated cyber espionage campaign (link)

• The Guardian: Ice obtains access to Israeli-made spyware that can hack phones and encrypted apps (link)

• CommsRisk: Vietnamese Describe Methods SMS Blaster Scammers Use to Evade Detection after New Hanoi Bust (link)

• Denis Laskov on LinkedIn - Cybersecurity attacks on brain implants: theoretical in 2020, practical PoC in 2025 (link)

• Dmitry Kurbatov on LinkedIn: Perimeter’s safe. The Core? Not so much (link)

• NCSC Guidance: Using Privileged Access Workstations (PAWS) in OT environments (link)

⦿ Smartphones, Devices, Wearables & Gadgets

• CNET: Apple Has New iPhone Satellite Features in the Works, Report Says (link)

⦿ AI, ML & Automation

• Deutsche Telekom: AI agents for mobile network (PR)

• AT&T Blog: Bringing Agentic Power to Bear Across AT&T’s Entire Business (link)

• Cisco SP Blog: Revolutionizing Network Troubleshooting with Deep Research AI Agents (link)

• ETSI publishes new Technical Report on user-centric frameworks for smart, data-driven digital ecosystems (PR)

• Tommy Björkberg on LinkedIn: "Last week, I wrote about the "Garbage In, Gospel Out" crisis choking telecom AI initiatives. Clearly, I struck a nerve. So the question now is, what do we actually DO about it? …" (link)

• Hugging Face: GSMA Open-Telco LLM Benchmarks 2.0: The first dedicated LLM Evaluation for Telecoms (link)

⦿ Satellites, HAPS, Drones, UAVs & Space

• Project Kuiper is now Amazon Leo (PR) – the new website is here.

• Connectivity Technology Blog: China’s Growing Constellations, Ambitions and the Future of Satellite Broadband (link)

⦿ Other News and Technology Stuff

• The Dial, India: The Scammer Next Door (link)

• Allan T. Rasmussen on LinkedIn: MVNO Market Explodes 🚀 Data Confirms Over 60 Percent Growth (link)

• Light Reading: DT bemoans low fiber take-up, despite progress on adds (link)

• Tom’s Hardware: Tesla targets AI data centers with massive Megapack batteries as grid-strain fears grow — says $50B/GW for a 2-hour system over a 20-year lifetime is 'outsized value' (link)

• Event Report by Dean Bubley: Mplify Global NaaS Event, Dallas (link)

• Ryan Jeffery on LinkedIn: Telco is a Circus with Thousands of Balls in the Air (link)

⦿ Picture of the week: This week I am sharing a photo posted by Dean Bubley on LinkedIn showing a ChatGPT advertisement. The comments under his post include a fascinating discussion on what this kind of promotion signals for the wider AI landscape. I have not seen one myself, although someone mentioned there are plenty across Central London. It will be interesting to see if other competitors follow this approach and try to outdo it.

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.