Conink Insights

Apple's smartphone stranglehold just got tighter

Recon Analytics reports that new consumer survey data reveals a market tilting fast toward Apple, a Samsung brand identity crisis, and Google renting share rather than owning it.

Globalstar bets on industrial automation and AI for private 5G

Globalstar expands XCOM RAN private 5G offering aimed at industrial automation and physical AI, amid speculation that the satellite company might be sold.

Eurobites: Ericsson, Du extend themselves on FWA

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Telefónica offloads Mexican mobile unit; new boss for Boldyn in Europe; TikTok invests in second Finnish data center.

Globe Telecom joins consortium to build Candle subsea cable

Globe Telecom will participate in the consortium as both an investor and a landing party, with the company providing a cable landing station in Nasugbu, Batangas in the Philippines.

India's Tejas eyes 5G turnaround at home and abroad

Backed by Tata Group and with the support of India's government, Tejas Networks is determined to prove it can succeed on the 5G world stage.

Mint Mobile launches $45/month Internet-wireless bundle

New offering from Mint Mobile – dubbed the 'Unf*! Your Bills' bundle – provides customers a full year of 5G Home MINTernet and unlimited wireless for $45/month. #pressrelease

FCC suspends seven for 'schemes to defraud' E-rate program

The FCC has suspended seven people who allegedly enriched themselves by defrauding the E-Rate program. #pressrelease

Vicki Williams, Melanie Penna appointed to top HR roles at Comcast

Vicki Williams has been promoted to the new role of chief human officer at Comcast, and retaining that role at NBCU. Melanie Penna has been appointed chief human resources officer for Comcast's Connectivity & Platforms unit. Bill Strahan, a long time top Comcast HR exec, is retiring. #pressrelease

EdgeBeam keeps its first acquisition in the family

EdgeBeam, the broadcaster-backed ATSC 3.0/4G network developer, has acquired the Broadspan datacasting platform and all its employees from Sinclair, one of EdgeBeam's joint venture members.

FCC seeks comment on communications marketplace competition

The FCC is soliciting comments from industry stakeholders and the general public to inform its Communications Marketplace Report to Congress for 2026, a biennial report assessing the state of competition across the telecom sector.

SBA Communications is on the block – report

SBA Communications is exploring a possible sale and has received interest from 'large infrastructure funds,' reports Bloomberg. SBA is among several tower owners that have sued Dish Wireless for allegedly breaching contracts.

Eurobites: Proximus wins 5G SA race in Belgium

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: United Group completes Greek link; Italy accuses Netflix of unlawful price hikes; UK class action targets Apple's cloud storage policy.

AT&T CTO casts doubt on AI compute at the far edge

AT&T uses AI in the RAN in myriad ways, it's building 'AI-ready' fiber and wireless networks, but it's not convinced about deploying AI compute at far-edge network sites.

India's Vodafone Idea and BSNL eye infrastructure sharing to stay competitive

Vodafone Idea and BSNL are in talks about infrastructure sharing that could enable them reduce costs and expand coverage while providing stronger third choice to customers.

Nvidia-backed Marvell pitches one chip to rule the RAN

Worried about the cost of developing custom silicon for a single RAN vendor, Marvell Technology reckons the market needs a common approach.

Huawei reshuffles top leadership

Head of ICT infrastructure David Wang added to top tier, replacing veteran Ken Hu.

How Verizon's January outage impacted business customers – survey

Recon Analytics surveyed business decision makers on how the nationwide Verizon outage in January impacted their operations and whether it changed their opinion on the company. The results contain mixed news for Verizon.

AT&T averaged 200 copper theft cases per week in 2025

AT&T said it logged more than 10,400 copper theft incidents in 2025 that resulted in losses of about $82 million. The majority of that theft occurred in California.

SpaceX claims Amazon Leo launches raise collision risks

SpaceX argues that a subset of Amazon Leo's satellites are creating collision risks. Amazon Leo countered that it is operating safely and that any increased risk is due to SpaceX lowering the altitude of Starlink satellites.

USF's renewed legal challenge spotlights need for reform

In the face of revived legal objections, industry groups including NTCA are once again defending the Universal Service Fund (USF) in court filings. Meanwhile, promised congressional reforms for the program have yet to materialize.

House Dems raise 'deep concern' over Starlink's BEAD wins

In a letter to the NTIA this week, House Democrats expressed concerns about Starlink's ability to meet its BEAD goals, after the company sought to get states to sign a rider relieving it of certain program requirements.

The Buildout: Comporium grows reach in rural South Carolina

This week in broadband builds: Comporium connects more South Carolinians; Race reaches Chowchilla, California; GoNetspeed coming to North Hamden, Connecticut; Comcast expands in Georgia, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania – and more.

Amazon sizing up deal for Globalstar – report

Globalstar shares rocketed after FT reported that Amazon is in talks to snap up the satellite services company. Earlier reports said SpaceX was also interested in buying Globalstar.

Adtran rolls out Terabit-class edge routers with 400-Gig interfaces

Adtran is helping operators scale up at the edge with new Terabit routing with 400Gbit/s interfaces. #pressrelease

Brightspeed touts fiber buildout milestone

Brightspeed said it has surpassed 3 million fiber locations mid second consecutive year of building out 1 million-plus passings. #pressrelease

Thailand's digital future gets $1B push from Microsoft for cloud and AI

Microsoft plans to invest over $1 billion over two years to build its cloud and AI data center infrastructure in Thailand.

SpaceX confidentially files for mega IPO – reports

SpaceX reportedly has filed privately for a massive initial public offering of stock that could raise up to $75 billion and seek a valuation of more than $1.75 trillion.

Eurobites: Cloud providers, ISPs protest Italy's storage levy

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Sparkle hooks up with EdgeNext; active social media use on the wane; Bouygues' sober approach to energy use.

Small DeepSig is at heart of AI-RAN challenge to Ericsson, Nokia

Having already teamed up with Intel and Nvidia, AI-RAN pioneer DeepSig is integral to the OCUDU open-source initiative.

Nokia’s Optical Roadmap for the AI Era

T-Mobile defends ads after Verizon wins injunction

Federal court sides with Verizon to block T-Mobile's ads promoting savings when consumers switch, but T-Mobile stands by its advertising and the case goes on.

How KDDI allowed a $1.6B fraud scheme to go unchecked

Fictitious ad transactions by subsidiaries in KDDI's $1.6 billion fraud scheme were a result of lack of expertise and poor risk management, an inquiry found.

Global streaming and TV revenues to top $1T by 2030 – Omdia

Omdia projects that global traditional TV and online video revenues will exceed $1 trillion by 2030, with growth driven by digital formats and advertising. #pressrelease

BDx locks in $320M loan to advance data center projects in Indonesia

BDx secures a $320 million loan to fund the continued development of its AI-focused data center campus in Jakarta.

Comcast is Vistance Networks' top customer… by a lot

Comcast represented about 35% of net sales for Vistance Networks in 2025, thanks in part to demand for DOCSIS 4.0 FDX nodes and amps. Vistance and its two units – Aurora Networks and Ruckus – used to be part of CommScope.

Huawei sales growth plummeted in 2025 as it gained 5,000 workers

The low-growth era seems to have arrived for Huawei, but that has not stopped it from bulking up its headcount and splurging on R&D.

Eurobites: Ofcom's mid-contract price rise rules 'backfire'

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: more railing against EU market regulation; 5G SA rocks up in Brighton; AI improves Shakespeare for schools.

Greenwatch: Can telcos strike gold with circularity?

In a March roundup of telecom sustainability news, we look at the sector's approach to circularity, recovering disused smartphones and the impact from manufacturing.

C-DOT eyes spinoff to take Indian tech global

Indian R&D body C-DOT is exploring a commercialization spinoff to take its 4G/5G stack and expanded tech portfolio to global markets.

AT&T signs $2M deal to improve FirstNet

US Department of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and AT&T have agreed to a $2 billion agreement to benefit FirstNet, the mobile network for first responders. #pressrelease

Syndeo Institute honors Comcast's Tony Speller

The Syndeo Institute at The Cable Center has named Comcast's Tony Speller as the recipient of the 2026 Innovation and Intrapreneurship Award for Excellence. The award will be presented at next month's Cable Hall of Fame Gala in New York. #pressrelease

Netcracker expands deal with Rakuten Mobile

Netcracker said it has extended its BSS partnership with Japan's Rakuten Mobile. #pressrelease

AT&T's 'OneConnect' puts cable in the crosshairs

'OneConnect,' AT&T's new flat-fee bundle of gigabit fiber and mobile plans, builds on the operator's broader convergence strategy and puts some pressure on cable's home broadband-wireless combos.

Corning, Meta break ground on cable manufacturing facility

Corning and Meta began construction on a significant expansion of Corning's optical cable manufacturing capacity in Hickory, North Carolina, to support the buildout of AI data centers. #pressrelease

Hunter Communications acquired by Oak Hill Capital

Charter's Spectrum TV app set to launch on Amazon Fire TV devices

Charter's Spectrum TV app will launch on Amazon Fire TV devices starting on April 15. The app supports the bulk of Charter's pay-TV offering, including the live TV lineup, cloud DVR and access to its VoD library. #pressrelease

SKT and NTT Docomo define the path to vRAN and AI-RAN

In a joint white paper, SKT and NTT Docomo identified the three key technical requirements for the development of vRAN and AI-RAN in mobile networks.

Telstra forced to slash mobile coverage claim by a third

Regulator sets rules for Australian mobile coverage maps following accusations that Telstra overstated its network reach by as much as 40%, forcing the operator to revise its coverage claims.

Fiber castles, cable forts, FWA camps and satellite warbands

The US home Internet competitive landscape is fragmenting into four distinct territorial formations, and these formations are reshaping wireless competition through convergence.

Eurobites: Go-it-alone digital sovereignty isn't the answer, says Vodafone study

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: TIM, CDP search for sovereign startups; CityFibre offers 8.5G; Telenor's GlobalConnect deal comes under scrutiny.

Ericsson eats into Nokia's share of VMO2 network in new 5G deals

A mega 5G deal with Virgin Media O2 worth 'several hundred million euros' is celebrated by Ericsson, but Nokia also lands work.

Comcast Business launches 'all-in' plans for SMBs

Comcast's business unit has introduced Total Solutions Advantage, a program made up of simplified, 'all-in' plans for SMBs starting at $60 per month with a 30-day money-back guarantee. #pressrelease

US PC market returned to 3% growth in Q4 2025 as Windows 11 refresh and component cost increases converged – Omdia

Shipments (excluding tablets) grew to 18.2 million units, reversing two consecutive quarters of annual decline. #pressrelease

Costs still key to DOCSIS 4.0 deployment decisions

Increased network reliability and beefier speeds and feeds are both core to DOCSIS 4.0, but overall costs remain a critical decision point as cable operators explore which path to take with their HFC networks.

Taiwan's KBRO taps Harmonic for multi-gig network upgrades

KBRO, an operator in Taiwan, is upgrading its network by deploying Harmonic's 'cOS' virtualized platform that can support both HFC and FTTP. #pressrelease

Nagarro bets on cross-industry expertise to drive telecom growth

Nagarro's telecom head believes AI will reinvent rather than eliminate system integrators, as operators' enterprise pivot creates new demand.

SpaceX could bid for more AWS-3 spectrum in next FCC auction

SpaceX is a possible bidder in upcoming AWS-3 auction, but one analyst views the move as a warm-up act for the satellite player to bid in the upper C-band auction.

Starlink feared as emerging threat to broadband service providers

'I think every fixed broadband operator should be very worried,' says CableLabs' Hans Geerdes. He calls satellite broadband 'basically the second coming of fixed wireless, but at much better economics.'

Eurobites: Now it's TIM's turn to bail out of Inwit towers deal

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: 4G on the French railways; how Kyivstar boosted network resilience in 2025; telecom helps save the planet.

‘Scale Across’ networking for Ai Scaling in APAC

AI-RAN – lots of talk, little action, no guarantees

When it comes to Nvidia's GPUs, keeping AI separate from RAN compute might be the most sensible approach for most telcos.

Asia's data center boom can't keep up with demand

Record data center investment and deployment in Asia still isn't enough to keep up with surging demand for AI and cloud.

Google Fiber officially rebrands as GFiber, but services stay the same

GFiber is no longer just a nickname for the fiber and fixed wireless operator as it moves toward a merger with Astound Broadband. 'Nothing is changing about your GFiber service,' GFiber CEO Dinni Jain reportedly told customers.

"They Cannot Afford to Fail" — Why European Telecoms Are Building Sovereign Infrastructure Now

AI is reshaping business Internet requirements

AI is raising operational stakes of Internet reliability, turning what was once a 'nice to have' secondary connection into a business-critical requirement.

Eurobites: CityFibre hopes for trenches without tailbacks

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Cellnex boosts its governance; Snapchat feels EU heat; Sky integrates HBO Max.

The Buildout: Conexon Connect completes new Georgia network

This week in broadband builds: Conexon Connect completes 13th fiber network; Spectrum reaches milestone in Florida; GoNetspeed invests in South River, New Jersey; Comcast expands in West Virginia – and more.

Deadline for Simba Telecom's M1 acquisition pushed back

Keppel and Simba Telecom have agreed to extend the deadline for the purchase of M1's telecom business due to the ongoing review by the Singapore's telecoms regulator.

India can't let BSNL fail but it seems incapable of a turnaround

Widening competitive gaps and a shrinking rural market share prove that revival packages alone cannot substitute for strategic clarity at BSNL.

ETSI General Assembly: the time for ETSI is now!

Sophia Antipolis, France, 7 April 2026 ETSI concluded its latest General Assembly with a forward‑looking agenda that highlighted the organisation’s strategic transformation, reaffirmed its alignment with EU priorities, and celebrated outstanding contributions within the ETSI community through the 2026 ETSI Fellows Awards. The Director‑General presented a comprehensive report outlining the progress made throughout ETSI’s ongoing transformation journey. He emphasised that ETSI’s purpose has

ETSI announces OpenCAPIF Release 4 aligned with 3GPP

Sophia Antipolis, France, 2 April 2026 ETSI Software Development Group OpenCAPIF (SDG OCF) is pleased to announce Release 4.0.0. With 3GPP Release 19 alignment and improved architecture, this release includes major upgrades to boost security and flexibility all around. OCF Release 4 introduces the first phase of Visibility Control, a gamechanger for API access management, alongside a fully revamped certificate architecture and smoother deployments. Key Enhancements: Visibility Control

ETSI 2026 Fellows Unveiled at General Assembly Dinner

Sophia Antipolis, France, 31 March 2026 The ETSI Fellowship Award ceremony took place on 24 March at the Marriott Hotel in Cannes, where the ETSI Director General, the Chair of the General Assembly and the Chair of the Board proudly introduced the 2026 ETSI Fellows. In a moment filled with applause and genuine emotion, Keith Dickerson, Kevin Holley and Michael Pluke were honoured for their remarkable achievements. Their Fellowship award stands as a tribute from their peers, celebrating the out

From vision to action: Strengthening EU–Japan standards cooperation for trusted digital futures

Sophia Antipolis, France, 25 March 2026 Today, ETSI-TTC Workshop, “How European and Japanese SDOs can support the EU-Japan Digital Partnership”, building on the momentum of ETSI’s mission led by Director General Jan Ellsberger in May 2025, highlighted how ETSI and the 𝗧𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗧𝗲𝗰𝗵𝗻𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝘆 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗶𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗲 (𝗧𝗧𝗖) are shaping the next generation of global standards across new and emerging digital technologies. Keynote speakers, Olivier Bringer, Head of

Shaping Europe’s Cybersecurity Standards: Highlights from the 10th Cybersecurity Standardisation Conference

Sophia Antipolis, France, 13 March 2026 The European Standardisation Organisations (ESOs) CEN, CENELEC, and ETSI, together with European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA), successfully co-hosted the 10th Cybersecurity Standardisation Conference on 12 March 2026 in Brussels. Marking the 10th anniversary of this flagship conference, the hybrid event brought together policymakers, industry leaders, researchers, and cybersecurity experts to discuss the evolving European cybersecurity land

From Rich Text to Video: RCS Universal Profile 4.0 has arrived 

Tom Van Pelt, Technical Director, GSMA  Delivering a consistent native messaging experience regardless of device or ecosystem is one of the primary objectives of GSMA’s Rich Communication Services (RCS) Universal Profile. We took a big step closer to that goal with the news that end-to-end encryption is being tested between Android and iOS devices. This was made possible by the specification set out by RCS Universal Profile 3.0 and RCS Universal Profile 3.1 and it is great to see progress […] Th

Mobile Money accounted for $2 trillion in  transactions in 2025, doubling since 2021 as active accounts continue to grow 

Monthly active mobile money accounts saw their highest growth since 2021.   24 March 2026, London: More than $2 trillion flowed through mobile money wallets globally in 2025, found the State of the Industry Report on Mobile Money 2026, prepared by the GSMA Mobile Money programme. This is an important threshold and exemplifies the exponential growth in transaction values the industry has experienced in recent years. It took 20 […] The post Mobile Money accounted for $2 trillion in  transactions i

Strengthening the Global Fight Against Fraud and Scams – Takeaways from the Global Fraud Summit in Vienna 

By Samantha Kight, GSMA Head of Security and Alix Jagueneau, GSMA Head of External Affairs  Fraud and scams have rapidly become one of the defining challenges of the digital age, with the global scam economy growing at an alarming pace. According to the Global Anti-Scam Alliance, over US$1 trillion has been lost to scams worldwide in 2024.   The Global Fraud Summit 2026, convened in Vienna by the UN Office […] The post Strengthening the Global Fight Against Fraud and Scams – Takeaways from the G