Mobile & Wireless Roundup No. 164

Welcome to the 164th edition of this newsletter. Yesterday, after watching a BBC Archive video on the launch of 3G, I found myself reflecting on my early days as a call processing engineer. Back then, while many operators had spent billions of pounds, dollars and euros on 3G licences, few anticipated just how damaging that investment would prove to be. The industry would take years, arguably decades, to recover.

At the time, the original 3G killer application was expected to be video calling. In reality, it was complex to implement and rarely worked well between operators. There were no app stores and no alternative video calling options, so the native service was all we had. My own operator gave me ten free minutes of video calling per month, with charges of fifty pence per minute beyond that. After using those free minutes in the first few months, my interest faded completely. It soon became clear that once the novelty wore off, most users simply returned to traditional voice calls and SMS.

That is where many of today’s discussions first began. If customers mainly use voice, messaging and data, what else can operators charge for? How do you encourage greater data usage, something Apple later demonstrated very effectively? How do you reduce site deployment costs and bring spectrum prices down?

When apps eventually became mainstream, services such as WhatsApp and Viber offered free international messaging, fundamentally changing user expectations. Despite efforts to introduce RCS, it is still not free for international messaging, so the incentive for users is limited. Many apps also allow messaging across multiple devices, including laptops, which remains difficult to replicate with operator-led solutions.

The key point is that the questions we were asking more than twenty years ago have not gone away. The much-discussed killer applications for 5G have yet to materialise, yet we are already planning ambitious new features for 6G. Technologies such as direct-to-device satellite connectivity and enhanced emergency services may offer clear societal value, but their monetisation paths remain uncertain. Even so, the industry continues to invest heavily, hoping that everything will eventually fall into place. History suggests that some of today’s problems may only be resolved in the next generation.

For those who are new here, I am a technologist with over 25 years of experience in mobile and wireless technologies, currently working as an independent advisor, analyst, consultant and trainer. This newsletter brings together my recent posts along with other industry news and insights that have caught my attention since the last edition.

⦿ 2G/3G

• Rudolf van der Berg on LinkedIn: "Apparently some older Samsung phones in Australia can't be fixed to dial emergency services over 4G after #3GShutdown, because of some old hardcoded settings for TPG/Vodafone's network that can't be changed…" (link)

• Rudolf van der Berg on LinkedIn: "My cynical "joke" is that you need an iPhone and live in a large country, if you don't want to be affected by "emergency call over 4G" issues. Well, apparently Australia is/isn't large enough…" (link)

⦿ 4G/LTE

• Chris Cockings on LinkedIn - Field Testing: RRC Reconfiguration - The Last Step of Attach (link)

• Chris Cockings on LinkedIn - Field Testing: CAT-1 When One Antenna Goes Missing (link)

⦿ 5G

• Light Reading: China's 5G patents have under-performed, says expert (link)

• 3GPP Highlights Issue 11 (Dec 2025) is now available (link)

• Vodafone and Spirent speed up widespread deployment of 5G voice core network software (PR)

⦿ 6G

• Free 6G Training: What Does 6G Sticking With the Same Waveform as 5G Mean for the Industry? (link)

• 6G Flagship: 6G Waves 11 published with insights on leadership in next-generation connectivity (link)

• Alain Mourad on LinkedIn: "What a better way to wrap my thought leadership in 2025 than with this talk on Sensing and AI in 6G - beyond the hype at the NGMN Alliance Forum this week in Dubai! …" (link)

• Free 6G Training - Pioneering 6G with AI: Reflections on NVIDIA’s Keynote at the Brooklyn 6G Summit 2025 (link)

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

• AmpliTech Achieves Major Milestone in 5G Innovation: First and only U.S. Company to Validate High-Capacity 64T64R CAT-B Massive MIMO Radios in Global Open RAN Testing with G-REIGN (HTC) And Digital Catapult SONIC Labs (PR)

• O-RAN Global PlugFest Fall 2025 Showcased Continued Evolution of Advanced Use Cases and Scenarios Featuring AI in the RAN (PR)

⦿ Spectrum

• Ofcom Statement: Enabling satellite direct to device services in Mobile spectrum bands (link)

• Laura Sear on LinkedIn: "I gathered thoughts and opinions at the European Commission's WRC-27 workshop on unauthorised satellite transmission and terminals over sovereign states (AI 1.5)…" (link)

• Marc Hijink on LinkedIn: Musk-o-Phone or Anti-Drone? (link)

• MWL: GSMA flags €30B opportunity through spectrum shake-up (link)

⦿ Private Networks

• Private Networks Technology Blog: LCRA and Ericsson Strengthen Utility Communications with a Mission Critical Private LTE Network (link)

• ZTE, China Unicom Liaoning and Dalian Changhai Airport launch 5G-A ISAC private network to elevate low-altitude security and airport safety (PR)

• Private Networks Technology Blog: CentrePort and Tū Ātea Bring New Zealand’s First Māori-Built Private 5G Network to Life (link)

⦿ Telecoms Infrastructure, Small Cells, Antennas & others

• Paul Rhodes on LinkedIn - Thursday School: What is Rural III! (link)

• Telia’s mobile network signals European first in Oslo subway (PR)

• Paul Rhodes on LinkedIn - Thursday School: Repeat what Works IV! (link)

• Fierce Network: AWS is using hollow core fiber to go the distance (link)

• Dell’Oro: RAN in 2026 (link)

⦿ IoT / M2M / Smart Homes

• Transforma Insights: 24 key themes in cellular-based IoT connectivity in 2025 (link)

• Afzal Mangal on LinkedIn: Super happy to announce https://hellothings.io to my network! (link)

• MWL: IoT player Thinxtra enters administration (link)

• T-Mobile Blog - 5G RedCap: Powering Smart Devices with Smarter 5G (link)

• Afzal Mangal on LinkedIn: IoT is full of contradictions (link)

• Transforma Insights: How can MNOs and MVNOs differentiate their IoT propositions? (link)

⦿ Security & Privacy

• Denis Laskov on LinkedIn - Blackout using EV chargers: challenges of modern EV chargers that you may not know (yet) (link)

• Cyber Security Magazine: ETSI Security Conference 2025 – Can We Trust AI? with David Rogers (Copper Horse) (link)

• Denis Laskov on LinkedIn - Hacker’s guide to trains: Everything you need to know about railway infrastructure cybersecurity (link)

• CommsRisk: Police Find SMS Blaster Hoard in Cambodia (link)

• Dmitry Kurbatov on LinkedIn - KT Breach UPD: Hacked Femtocells as Eavesdropping Network (link)

• Denis Laskov on LinkedIn - Hacking space satellites: jamming, spoofing, eavesdropping, and Brazilian satcom pirates (link)

• CommsRisk: 7-Year Prison Sentence for Fake Airplane Wi‑Fi Scammer Who Copied Private S*x Images from Women’s Phones (link)

• CERT-FR Threats and Incident Report - Mobile phones: State of the threat since 2015 (link, PDF)

⦿ Smartphones, Devices, Wearables & Gadgets

• Worldwide Smartphone Market to Grow 1.5% in 2025, Boosted by Record Apple Shipments in 2025 of 247.4 Million Units and 6.1% YoY Growth, according to IDC (PR)

⦿ AI, ML & Automation

• Operator Watch Blog: The Power of AI in NTT Docomo’s 5G Journey (link)

• Telco Republic - The Profound Impact of Agentic AI on Telecom: A Strategic Guide for Telecom Decision Makers (link)

• SoftBank Corp. and Yaskawa Electric Corporation Begin Collaboration on Social Implementation of "Physical AI" Utilizing AI-RAN (PR)

• FutureNet MENA 2025 Insights - Mobily Network Automation Journey (link)

• Ericsson and MasOrange advance Autonomous Networks with AI-driven automation platform and rApps (PR)

• Operator Watch Blog: Telefonica’s Journey Towards End-to-End Autonomous Networks (link)

⦿ Satellites, HAPS, Drones, UAVs & Space

• Connectivity Technology Blog: Skylo’s Work on Making NB-NTN Voice a Reality (link)

• Dmitry Kurbatov on LinkedIn: Research Simulates Large-Scale Jamming of Starlink (link)

• Cobham Satcom and Gatehouse Satcom join forces to create a global powerhouse in 5G satellite infrastructure (link)

⦿ Wi-Fi

• RCR Wireless: Three Wi-Fi 8 features dependent on 6 GHz (link)

• MWL: Verizon boosts NFL stadium coverage with Wi-Fi 6E (link)

⦿ Public Safety Networks

• MWL: Deutsche Telekom connects 5G, TETRA for emergency staff (link)

⦿ Quantum Networks & Technology

• ETSI’s Quantum Committee First Meeting: a Key Milestone for Global Quantum Standards (PR)

⦿ Other News and Technology Stuff

• Harri Holma on LinkedIn: "Global network traffic report by Nokia Bell Labs Consulting shows that the mobile traffic is forecasted to grow by a factor of 3.5 times (conservative) to 7.5 times (aggressive) from 2024 to 2034 to even beyond 1000 Exabytes per month…" (link) – some good discussions in the comments.

⦿ Picture of the week: A great example shared by Peter Clarke on LinkedIn showing how poles and masts are evolving to support ever-increasing bandwidths, frequency bands and radio complexity. As Peter explains, this deployment uses 200 MHz of C-band n78 spectrum for 5G, delivered using Ericsson’s highly capable AIR 3258 active antenna. You can find details on Peter's post 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.