Today, we’re tracing how telecom’s physical and digital foundations are being rebuilt for the AI era.

We kick off with the launch of Unmuted, our new video series, where Zayo’s Chief Product Officer Bill Long unpacks the company’s strategy in the fiber market. “When you’re doing fiber expansion, the smart way to do it is to go where the customers are telling you to go,” Long told RCR. Make sure to watch the interview to see where exactly that is. Spoiler alert: It’s got a whole lot to do with seismic shifts driven by AI and automation.

Even the test and measurement sector isn’t immune to reconfiguration. As Sulagna Saha reports, the recent Keysight–Viavi–Spirent merger signals a consolidation of validation power at the heart of telecom’s innovation cycle, just as AI testing and network assurance become existential needs. Ultimately, she writes, this transaction represents stiffer competition for the broader T&M industry.

And so, it seems AI isn’t just driving demand; it’s dictating how the entire industry evolves. 

Other layers of the stack are experiencing major developments, as well. In Japan, open vRAN deployments are showing that disaggregation can scale — but only with a mature, interoperable ecosystem. In an interview, an Omdia analyst explains that the country’s progress offers a blueprint for balancing flexibility and reliability in next-gen mobile networks.

We’ll be following every twist and turn of this rapidly evolving landscape — and rolling out more videos later this week, so stay tuned!