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Inside the coherent pluggable flywheel

AI connectivity has a new currency. It's coherent pluggable optics “We're really now in a pluggable coherent world,” said Andrew Schmitt, founder and directing analyst at Cignal AI, as he began his presentation at OFC in LA last week.  In their...

GSMA: Telcos move from AI hype to practical deployment at MWC 2026

The industry shifts focus toward agentic AI and sovereign infrastructure, according to the GSMA MWC 2026 was packed with AI messaging, which is no surprise. This time around however, things seem to be shifting a little -- from concept to...

MatSing brings high-capacity lens antenna innovation to WiFi

The RF optics innovation behind MatSing revolves around physics and material science, not hardware and complex software. In a space where there isn’t usually a lot of evolution, MatSing is bringing innovation through patented metamaterial lens technology that uses refraction...

Vi and BSNL consider network and spectrum sharing

India’s Department of Telecommunications (DoT) said talks are underway, covering potential collaboration on towers, fiber networks, and spectrum assets In sum – what to know: Sharing talks begin – Vodafone Idea and BSNL are discussing joint use of towers, fiber, and...

Voice will be the default AI interface, says Deutsche Telekom

Deutsche Telekom is expanding AI-driven automation beyond monitoring into operational control In sum – what to know: Expansion scope – Deutsche Telekom is deploying AI across customer services and network operations, with broader rollouts planned throughout the year. Voice integration – Magenta...

Vodafone taps Aurora for AI-friendlier last-mile broadband in Germany

Aurora Networks, under rebranded parent Vistance Networks, has upgraded Vodafone’s broadband network in Germany with Remote PHY, DAA, and virtual CMTS technologies – for improved AI-friendly last-mile connectivity. In sum – what to know: Modern last-mile – Remote PHY moves physical-layer...

A Billion-Dollar Bet on Wireless: Bernard Borghei on Building the Next Infrastructure Platform

In this episode, Bernard Borghei, Founder and CEO of Connected Infra Group, shares how he is building the next generation of wireless infrastructure platforms—drawing on more than three decades of experience across telecom, towers, and global network development. From...

Bezos vs Musk – a face-off in space?

A new FCC filing from Blue Origin is heating up competition between the two wealthiest men on Earth In sum — what to know:  Regulatory chess: In what feels like a chessboard move, Blue Origin requested FCC’s approval for 51,000 satellites...

China Unicom cuts capex, boosts AI infra spending

China Unicom is also expanding its AI infrastructure, with more than 1.1 million data center cabinets and computing capacity reaching 45 EFLOPS In sum – what to know: AI spending rises – Over 35% of 2026 capex allocated to computing infrastructure...

O2 deploys pre-assembled mobile masts

John Bonello, director at Vecta Labs, told RCR Wireless News that the pre-assembled mobile masts for UK carrier O2 are designed to scale across different deployment scenarios In sum – what to know: Faster deployment – Pre-assembled masts cut installation time...

Optics and agents – Ciena presents telco play “to monetize anything-AI”

Coherent optics, photonic line systems, and software agents are helping cloud providers and telco companies to manage the explosive AI workload demands on fiber networks – across cutting-edge interconnect systems, upgraded longhaul infrastructure, and emerging mobile access networks. As...

Department of War takes aim at closed RAN stacks with open source

The Open Centralized Unit Distributed Unit (OCUDU) Ecosystem Foundation challenges AI-RAN gatekeeping that has been stalling the open RAN movement Opinions on open RAN (radio access network) are mixed. On the surface, the movement looks less alive now than it...

SpaceX brings Xsight Labs onboard ahead of Starlink v3 launch

Xsight Labs’ programmable X2 switch tapped by SpaceX to push throughput beyond 1 Tbps My home airport is XNA, so I spend a lot of time on United regional jets. Fortunately, the carrier is rapidly equipping its ERJ175s with Starlink...

Negotiating network slices with AI

Telecom and enterprise AI systems are beginning to negotiate and provision network slices The telecommunications industry is rapidly moving toward a future where network connectivity is traded as dynamically as cloud computing. Instead of static contracts and manual provisioning, the...

The hidden bottleneck in modern network deployment (Reader Forum)

The telecommunications industry has made remarkable progress in expanding mobile infrastructure to support the demands of a hyper-connected world. Operators continue to invest heavily in network modernization, densification, and next-generation technologies to deliver faster speeds, lower latency, and greater...

Energy measurement in open RAN – what the data shows (Reader Forum)

Energy efficiency has become one of the most pressing operational and sustainability challenges facing mobile network operators. Sarat Puthenpura at the Open Networking Foundation, discusses the findings for open RAN systems. Energy efficiency has become one of the most pressing...

O2 Telefónica develops AI assistant for network operations

The new tool is a single part of the operator’s grand plan to establish autonous networks with high levels of AI automation by 2030 In sum – what to know: AI ops support – NOA assists engineers with troubleshooting, diagnostics, and...

Wi-Fi takeaways from Mobile World Congress (Analyst Angle)

As the industry's largest annual gathering for connectivity and telecommunications, MWC serves as a bellwether for where wireless technology is heading. Among the many themes on display at the 2026 event – from 6G visions to AI-powered networks –...

Report: AI in testing – Developing trust, delivering results

AI adoption in the telecom industry is accelerating rapidly, with AIOps and AI-RAN emerging as strategic priorities. Yet many telecom network operators remain stuck in AI pilot phases due to a lack of trust, fragmented data, operational readiness gaps...

Scale-up, scale-out, scale-across take center stage at OFC

Kannan Raj, architect, Oracle pulled back the curtain on the three dimensions of connectivity that define AI-era networking, and how optical innovation is enabling the globe-spanning AI network fabric One of the tech industry’s biggest worries was in full...

Reimagining consumer services in an AI-first world

Radisys CEO Arun Bhikshesvaran sat down with Rakuten Mobile’s Chief AI and Data Officer Sachin Verma  for a “Coffee, Chai & Chat” podcast at MWC Barcelona. They discussed how AI-enhanced digital services, and the ways in which Rakuten Mobile...

VIAVI Solutions and NVIDIA work toward software-defined, AI-native networks 

The companies’ collaboration has yielded agentic AI blueprints, RAN digital twins and a strategy for moving customers toward autonomous networks and AI-native 6G wireless networks. VIAVI CTO Sameh Yamany and NVIDIA senior director of telecom marketing Kanika Atri spoke to...

Nokia touts massive TCO reduction with new line of coherent optical solutions

Post-Infinera integration, the Finnish vendor’s growth target is data center interconnect Nokia’s optical pitch this year at OFC was crystalline, more intentional, and landed somewhere between breakthrough and inevitable.  A new building block-based approach A diverse set of new applications have emerged...

Ciena and Meta claim record subsea transmission speed

The trial used Ciena’s WaveLogic 6 Extreme (WL6e) coherent optics over an unregenerated link In sum – what to know: Record distance – 800 Gb/s transmitted over 16,608 km without regeneration on a transpacific subsea link. Higher capacity – The trial achieved...

Physical AI, without the theatre – Siemens finds its private 5G groove

The tech is not the story (stupid!), says Siemens; it is a part of a solution, of course – just like IoT, and just like AI. Industrial enterprises have their own problems, and don't buy the hype anyway; but...