Telcos have spent enormous effort improving customer service, yet something as simple as broken roaming, a billing error, or an eSIM problem can still turn into a nightmare. Customers no longer compare their telco with another telco, but they compare their experience with Amazon, Apple, Uber, their bank, and every other digital service they use every day. Against that benchmark, telecom has a problem.

Wall Street wiped tens of billions of dollars off the combined market value of Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile after SpaceX announced its latest spectrum acquisition. Investors are suddenly worried about Elon Musk building a fourth mobile operator in the United States. But I think another problem is developing, and it could affect the industry much sooner than most people expect. The United States is preparing one of its largest spectrum release cycles in years, with at least 800 MHz covered by auction mandates extending through 2034. Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile will need to decide how much additional spectrum they require for 5G and eventually 6G, while SpaceX is assembling the assets to become a credible competitor in parts of the mobile market.

On October 13, Nokia announced that it had signed an agreement to sell its Enterprise Campus Edge business to AURELIUS, a private equity investor specializing in corporate carve-outs. This is the business behind much of Nokia’s success in private LTE and 5G, including its Digital Automation Cloud, industrial edge computing platforms, devices and applications. The buyer will gain nearly 900 enterprise customers across manufacturing, mining, logistics, airports, ports, and utilities. The transaction price has not been disclosed, and completion is expected during the first half of 2027. This is a substantial business in terms of market presence. According to Berg Insight, Nokia had approximately 960 private LTE and 5G customers and more than 2,000 network deployments worldwide at the end of 2025.

Nokia announced accelerated global adoption of AI-RAN technology, with major operators including A1 Group, Chunghwa Telecom, du, e&, Mobily, stc, TPG Telecom, and Zain Saudi progressing from evaluation to laboratory and live field trials. This advancement marks AI-RAN's transition from theoretical concept to commercial deployment across North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and the Middle East. Nokia's industry-first commercial AI-native RAN platform, developed in collaboration with NVIDIA on platform and software tools, has demonstrated over 20 percent improvements in spectral efficiency through AI-powered radio innovations. The platform combines Nokia's AI-native anyRAN software with NVIDIA Aerial RAN Computer to enable operators to extract greater performance from existing spectrum assets. A continuous software innovation roadmap extending through 2027 and 2028 promises further spectral efficiency gains. This technology matters because it transforms radio networks into programmable platforms supporting both connectivity and artificial intelligence workloads, enabling operators to increase capacity, improve network economics, and create new service opportunities while reducing dependence on traditional hardware refresh cycles—critical as AI applications drive new traffic patterns and distributed computing requirements.

Intracom Telecom, leveraging over 30 years of European research innovation, has positioned itself strategically within the EU's 6G SNS JU initiative aimed at establishing European technology sovereignty in next-generation networks. The company participates actively in multiple forefront research and innovation projects as a Full Industry Member of 6G-IA, Pioneer member of 6G Flagship, and member of one6G. Intracom's 6G vision focuses on connecting human, physical, and digital worlds to enable advanced applications including Extended Reality, Internet of Senses, Cobots, and Massive Twinning. The company's research concentrates on critical enabler technologies such as THz communications, AI and Edge Intelligence, Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces, Joint Communication and Sensing, and Non-Terrestrial Networks. Intracom's specific technical contributions include intelligent edge cloud resource management, AI and Machine Learning Operations mechanisms for Native-AI architectures, baseband processing for RIS-based antennas, photonics-enabled transceivers for THz bands, and disaggregated X-Haul as a Mobile Edge Computing hosting platform. This strategic positioning strengthens Europe's competitive capability in 6G development.

Metamaterials are emerging as transformative technologies for next-generation information and communications systems, addressing growing demands for faster connectivity, expanded bandwidth, reduced latency, enhanced security and lower energy consumption. The UK Metamaterials Network brings together diverse expertise across telecommunications, photonics, electronics, quantum technologies, sensing and computing to advance these innovations. Metamaterial-enabled antennas, filters and reconfigurable intelligent surfaces enhance coverage, capacity and spectrum utilisation for 5G networks, 6G research, satellite communications and non-terrestrial applications. The technology unlocks the previously inaccessible terahertz spectrum for ultra-high-speed communications, advanced imaging and security screening through engineered compact components. Photonic metamaterials and metasurfaces manipulate light at subwavelength scales, enabling next-generation optical communications and integrated circuits while addressing energy demands in data centres and AI infrastructure. Beyond signal transmission, metamaterials support emerging computational approaches including analogue computing, neuromorphic systems and magnonic devices, potentially delivering faster, more energy-efficient processing for specialist applications. Additionally, metamaterial-enabled sensors and energy harvesting devices enable low-power connected systems for smart infrastructure, industrial monitoring and environmental sensing, reducing maintenance costs while improving asset awareness and facilitating intelligent decision-making across distributed networks.

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Telecom networks employ extensive automation through configuration templates, assurance systems, and AI/ML optimization, yet true autonomy remains elusive. The distinction between automation and autonomy is critical: automation executes bounded tasks while autonomy requires coherent system governance. BubbleRAN defines an autonomous network as a self-governing communications system that continuously translates stakeholder intent and live network conditions into safe, verifiable actions—reconfiguring services, APIs, control logic, and resources while detecting faults and improving capabilities without routine human intervention. This autonomy emerges as a system property when sensing, reasoning, optimization, validation, actuation, governance, and learning operate as one continuous loop. Industry frameworks including TM Forum's operational scenario measurements, ETSI ZSM's zero-touch management standards, and O-RAN's open control surfaces through SMO, RICs, and applications provide foundational approaches. BubbleRAN extends these frameworks by addressing whether networks can convert changing intent into continuously verified outcomes across domains and timescales while maintaining operator authority and policy compliance. True autonomous networks require integrated control loops rather than isolated AI models or automated scripts.

Network X 2026 is set to convene Europe's leading telecommunications companies in Vienna, marking a significant expansion of the conference's European focus. The event will showcase industry innovation and excellence through its Network X Awards 2026, which has announced its finalists across multiple categories. The conference agenda emphasizes connectivity's future, with the expo floor featuring discussions on artificial intelligence, 5G networks, and data management technologies. Major industry players including Huawei and ZTE are driving innovation in intelligent networking solutions. Huawei has unveiled its fully upgraded Xinghe Intelligent Network offerings specifically designed for European markets, supporting digital transformation and industry intelligence development. ZTE is hosting a complementary Global Summit & User Congress 2025 in Milan centered on expanding intelligence capabilities. These gatherings underscore the telecommunications sector's commitment to advancing network infrastructure, emerging technologies, and professional services across Europe, positioning the region as a hub for next-generation connectivity solutions and digital innovation.

The European Union faces a complex challenge regarding Chinese technology, with two distinct debates often conflated: cybersecurity and tech sovereignty concerns, addressed through the Cybersecurity Act and European Tech Sovereignty Package, and economic impacts on Europe's manufacturing sector, targeted by the Industrial Accelerator Act. Growing alarm surrounds Chinese electric vehicles threatening German manufacturing, potential grid sabotage via solar panel inverters, and concerns about Huawei's role in European telecoms. However, conflating security and economic arguments proves counterproductive long-term. The EU must adopt a nuanced approach: protecting its industrial base from Chinese competition while leveraging Chinese technological expertise and innovation ecosystems where beneficial. Simultaneously, it must establish a geopolitical framework guarding against technology weaponization—where China presents risks alongside other actors—while maintaining clear boundaries for tech sovereignty. Success requires balancing strategic independence with pragmatic engagement, recognizing that European competitiveness and innovation often depend on accessing leading Chinese technological capabilities across multiple sectors.

Nokia has successfully demonstrated a 20 percent spectral efficiency gain through AI-RAN trials conducted across eight global telecom operators including A1 Group, Chunghwa Telecom, du, e&, Mobily, stc, TPG Telecom, and Zain Saudi, with ongoing live trials at NTT DOCOMO. The field trials represent a transition from laboratory testing to production base station deployments. Nokia's AI-native RAN platform converts traditional fixed-function radio access networks into programmable software nodes, enabling simultaneous baseband connectivity and enterprise computing workloads on shared hardware. This addresses rising uplink demands from distributed AI models and device-side workloads driven by evolving network traffic patterns. The commercial foundation combines Nokia's anyRAN software suite with NVIDIA's Aerial RAN Computer, delivering a software-defined architecture for 5G with a pathway to 6G standards. The verified algorithmic optimizations allow carriers to enhance cell throughput and extract greater commercial value from existing spectrum allocations without requiring expensive physical antenna infrastructure upgrades. Both companies are developing open ecosystem software tools to encourage third-party OEM participation, positioning AI-RAN as foundational technology for future telecommunications networks.

AI is apparently eating the world, although it just isn’t eating many household credit cards yet. Bank of America found that only around 3% of its U.S. households were paying for AI services in early 2026, with median spending of roughly $20 per month. PNC independently landed in almost the same place, with 2.2% of households in its dataset paying for GenAI subscriptions in May, although those who did paid an average of about $31 a month. Two major banks, two independent transaction datasets, getting essentially the same conclusion.

Deutsche Telekom held its AI Investor Day this week, and it was one of the more interesting attempts I have seen from a telecom operator to explain what AI could actually mean for the industry. Most telcos still talk about AI through customer-service bots, coding copilots, and a collection of isolated use cases. DT presented something much broader: AI as an enterprise redesign that touches the network, customer interaction, software, infrastructure, and eventually the products the company sells. It is difficult to argue that many operators are further along in putting all those pieces together.

For years, passengers tolerated terrible in-flight internet. You paid twenty dollars, opened Gmail, waited, tried again, and eventually gave up. Nobody expected to hold a video call halfway across the Atlantic or work normally from a laptop for six hours. That is changing because the underlying technology has changed. Emirates now has A380 with more than 2 Gbps of aggregate Starlink capacity across the aircraft, while its first generation of A380 connectivity had less than 1 Mbps available for the whole plane.

5G network slicing partitions a single physical mobile network into multiple isolated logical networks, each tailored to specific service requirements such as low-latency industrial control, consumer broadband, or IoT connectivity. Unlike traditional VLAN segmentation, slicing operates across radio, transport, and core layers with customized traffic handling, quality of service expectations, security postures, and lifecycle management. This virtualization enables operators to align network behavior with business needs while reducing security blast radius—if one service becomes compromised or misconfigured, slice boundaries help prevent interference with other services sharing the same infrastructure. However, isolation is not automatic; it requires correct policy enforcement, accurate orchestration, and strong separation between shared functions including the control plane and management systems. Slicing proves most valuable when workloads have genuinely different network requirements, such as emergency services, enterprise traffic, and mobile edge computing. Security vulnerabilities emerge when orchestration is weak, management privileges excessive, or shared components fail. A compromised slice manager or exposed management interface can render logical separation ineffective, allowing traffic and control pathways to cross intended boundaries.

LUNA (LUneburg-lens-aided recoNfigurable Array) represents a novel antenna architecture designed to advance sixth-generation wireless networks by unifying multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) and network-controlled repeater (NCR) functionalities. The system leverages a Luneburg lens—a graded-index dielectric structure that passively converts low-gain feed radiation into highly directional beams without active phase shifting—combined with a dense passive feed bank and reconfigurable feed-selection network for electronic beam steering. This approach minimizes hardware complexity and power consumption while enabling beam direction switching. The article reviews Luneburg lens principles and their historical application in radar and wireless communications, then demonstrates how LUNA-MIMO and LUNA-NCR variants reuse the lens and feed bank across multiple functions and frequency bands. Case studies confirm that LUNA achieves satisfactory spectral and energy efficiency using minimal radio-frequency chains while improving positioning performance for sensing applications. The architecture addresses fundamental limitations of conventional MIMO systems and movable antenna concepts by balancing spatial degrees of freedom with sufficient aperture for array gain, particularly in millimeter-wave and terahertz bands essential for 6G networks supporting integrated communications, sensing, and resilient coverage.

The technology sector is experiencing a significant shift from traditional social media platforms toward immersive extended reality (XR) experiences, encompassing augmented, mixed, and virtual reality technologies. Major corporations including Meta, Google, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Tencent, and ByteDance are actively investing in this emerging economy. This article analyzes the material economic conditions shaping the XR landscape and examines how big tech companies' existing platform infrastructures will likely create familiar patterns of concentrated power in this new domain. The authors identify critical regulatory challenges posed by XR's complexity, particularly concerning user manipulation, surveillance, disinformation, and harassment risks as these immersive technologies become increasingly pervasive. To address these governance issues, the researchers propose a layer-model approach designed to manage regulatory complexity in XR platforms. This work contributes to a special issue on governing the metaverse through public sphere analysis, highlighting the urgent need for regulatory intervention as companies pursue making immersive technologies as ubiquitous and essential as smartphones.

Organizations deploying software across multiple operating systems, runtimes, and architectures face significant challenges in maintaining FIPS 140-3 validated cryptography while preparing for post-quantum security. SafeLogic addresses these complexities through CryptoComply, which delivers FIPS 140-3 validated cryptographic software for regulated products, and SafePQ, which supports post-quantum deployment and hybrid migration strategies. Cross-platform cryptographic integration requires more than code compilation; differences in C libraries, language runtimes, entropy sources, and CPU instruction sets affect performance and compliance status. Critical regulatory developments mandate ESV-certified entropy sources for all NIST FIPS 140-3 submissions and Common Criteria evaluations. Companies must navigate divergent requirements across Java, Go, .NET, and native applications while incorporating NIST-standardized post-quantum algorithms including ML-KEM, ML-DSA, and SLH-DSA, which have different performance characteristics than classical cryptography. SafeLogic's unified approach simplifies multi-platform integration and compliance, enabling organizations to establish consistent cryptographic foundations while managing the transition from classical to post-quantum security standards.

# Professional Summary This paper presents a comprehensive roadmap for integrating artificial intelligence into Open RAN (Radio Access Network) architecture, authored by Ryan Barker, Alireza Ebrahimi Dorcheh, and colleagues. The research addresses the evolution from traditional xApps and rApps—application and RAN applications respectively—toward autonomous network agents capable of intelligent decision-making in wireless networks. The work outlines a progressive framework that leverages AI-native principles to enhance network optimization, resource allocation, and operational efficiency. By establishing a structured pathway from conventional RAN applications to fully autonomous AI agents, the roadmap provides telecommunications stakeholders with strategic guidance on technology adoption and implementation priorities. This research matters significantly as Open RAN represents a pivotal shift toward vendor interoperability and network flexibility, while AI integration promises substantial improvements in network performance, cost reduction, and adaptive capability. The framework bridges current industry capabilities with future autonomous systems, enabling telecommunications operators and vendors to plan investments and development strategies in this rapidly evolving landscape.

Nokia is putting part of its network business into orbit. Today it announced with ICEYE a secure broadband LEO system that governments can buy, own and operate, with the first communications satellites expected in 2028. ICEYE brings the spacecraft, constellation operations and sovereign customers. Nokia brings communications, secure networking and orchestration. The business model is the interesting part. Starlink sells access to a constellation owned by SpaceX. ICEYE and Nokia want governments to buy the constellation itself, including the satellites, ground segment and terminals. Nokia therefore does not need to compete for ten million broadband subscribers or match Starlink on cost per gigabyte. It needs a few governments willing to spend heavily for control.