The most interesting telecoms news today probably comes from Orange, Telstra, and Nvidia – which have, respectively, secured a second cyber-secure SecNumCloud rating for sovereign cloud, opened up an east-west fiber route for trans-Australia data traffic, and issued a worthwhile blog about telcos taking open source models. All of these stories, more or less, are about how telcos are getting tangled up with AI infrastructure. They are linked at the bottom. In terms of straighter wireless news, I’d draw your attention to three other pieces: Vish has done the maths on Starlink Mobile, and finds a fairly hard capacity limit as population density rises; Christian has looked at the AI-RAN payback question, with Deutsche Telekom, Turkcell and 1Finity arguing that the real AI-RAN money is in network operations for now, rather than some grand new AI revenue stream; and Adlane has picked apart Europe’s Wi-Fi spectrum gap, where the EU is wiring buildings for gigabit connectivity while leaving the last few meters short of spectrum, particularly in apartment blocks. Enjoy.
James Blackman
Executive Editor
RCR Wireless News
RCR Top Stories
Starlink math: Starlink’s big constraint is capacity per square kilometer. A new model, offered up by Vish Nandlall, suggests where population density forces satellite service back toward terrestrial sites, backhaul, and standard mobile infra.
AI-RAN hype: Deutsche Telekom and Turkcell agreed at Intelligent RAN Forum where AI-RAN pays off today: network operations. The new-revenue case for AI-RAN still needs a paying customer.
Spectrum gap: Europe’s Gigabit Infrastructure Act takes fiber into new buildings, but its Wi-Fi spectrum policy leaves the final metres unresolved. In dense apartment blocks, limited 6 GHz capacity threatens to undermine the gigabit promise.
AI tests O-RAN: Open RAN and network intelligence are expanding the range of RAN use cases, but interoperability, standardized data, testing, and trust in AI applications remain key challenges for operators.
Mega merger: Schneider Electric is to buy PTC for a cool $22.6bn – to consolidate its stake in the industrial AI stack, raise trust and traceability, and maybe bring networking back up the agenda…
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Beyond the Headlines
Sell AI-RAN, now! Telcos should rent-out underused RAN compute through enterprise AI deployments, says 1Finity – vs waiting for optimization gains to justify investment. They need policy-driven orchestration to protect performance, too.
6GHz update: 6GHz Wi-Fi adoption is accelerating in the US, says Dean Bubley, with Ookla showing six-fold growth since 2024 and Cisco reporting 48% usage at BottleRock. More power, AFC and simpler access could push adoption further.
AI-RAN’s needs: Ericsson says AI RAN requires both AI-optimized networks and networks built for AI applications, with stronger uplinks and distributed intelligence becoming increasingly important.
Telco AI proofs? AI is proving its value for telcos – mostly in customer service, plus some enhanced automation cases in RAN operations. The question is whether telcos can make a fist of reselling all their AI wizardry as well.
Multi-hop mmWave: How to extend high-frequency mmWave coverage without just adding more base stations? Kyocera’s multi-hop repeater validation points to a more flexible architecture for NLOS environments.
What We're Reading
Open telco AI: Nvidia says 89% of telcos see open-source models as important to their AI strategies, citing greater control, customization, and flexibility as telcos develop AI for network operations, customer services and local applications.
Oz, east-west: Telstra has opened the Perth-Sydney route of its Aura network, adding a high-capacity east-west fiber link connecting Western Australia with eastern data centres, cloud hubs, and international subsea networks.
Sovereign cloud: Orange Business has a second SecNumCloud rating for Cloud Avenue, expanding its sovereign cloud portfolio with dedicated, resilient infra and GPU capacity for sensitive workloads and AI training and inference.
AST integration: Telus and AST SpaceMobile have done a first integration test, paving the way for D2D broadband, voice, and messaging services across Canada, with commercial availability expected within the next year.
Network agents: VEON and Amdocs have a 10-year deal to modernize VEON’s core technology operations with a telco-focused agentic AI platform, incorporating QazCode technology to support digital services across Eurasia.
