Infrastructure company IHS Towers completed the sale of assets in Brazil and Colombia to Macquarie Asset Management, a deal announced in February as being worth $952 million.

IHS noted the sale signals its exit from the Latin America region and is part of a strategy around “shareholder value-creation”.

Macquarie noted the transaction includes 8,700 sites in Brazil and 250 in Colombia, strengthening its position as a “long-term investor in the digital infrastructure sector” and “supporting the growth of critical infrastructure across Latin America”.

The investment company’s Brazil country manager Fernando Lohmann added the market he heads “continues to be one of the most attractive infrastructure markets globally, supported by growing demand for connectivity and long-term investment in critical services.”

“As digitalisation accelerates across Brazil and the broader region, resilient communications infrastructure will play an increasingly important role in supporting economic growth and social development”.

Completion of the sale comes as operator group MTN continues to work towards an acquisition of IHS Towers, a company it already owned around a quarter of before announcing its intent for a complete buyout in February.  

The deal with MTN is still undergoing the regulatory process. Earlier this week, IHS shareholders formally approved the takeover bid at the company’s extraordinary general meeting.  

In a stock market notification today (7 August), the operator group noted the sale of the IHS’s Latin American assets aligned with its intention “to acquire only IHS’s African assets”.

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NEC lined up real-world trials of a technology mix it reckons could shake up the vehicle parking sector, advancing a self-professed mission to digitalise the sector.

The company is integrating a parking management system from UrbanChain with its own AI image recognition technology to assess the effectiveness in detecting when people leave their vehicle.

NEC explained this is an important safety step, reasoning the set-up could be used to provide alerts if people park and then fail to exit the vehicle in a timely manner, which it stated could indicate they have suffered a medical episode.

The company explained there is growing concern about such matters.

Trials of the combined system are scheduled to begin in car parks in the Fukuoka Prefecture of Japan next month to assess how effective the AI is at recognising the number of vehicle occupants and if they have left or not.

NEC stated the companies hope to devise a “next-generation” car parking service model which could improve “safety, security and convenience”.

The companies hope to work out how many cameras are required and the best installation points along with the overall impact on safety and security.

They are also exploring a payment model based on the time a vehicle enters a parking space instead of charging from the moment it enters the grounds.

Ultimately, the work could establish a means of analysing car park usage trends and control mechanical lifts used in multi-storey architectures.

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MobileX and Boost Mobile founder Peter Adderton (pictured) rebuffed the reported view of T-Mobile US CEO Srini Gopalan that Starlink poses little threat to mobile operators.

Financial Times (FT) reported Gopalan is struggling to see what consumer problem satellite services solve by entering the mobile market.

“You’ve got to ask the question of ‘What is the gap in the market that they’re looking to serve?'” he reportedly said, adding a broader network is “clearly not” what would draw customers to a new mobile service.

In a post on LinkedIn, Adderton said Gopalan’s position misses the point entirely.

“I always find it funny when wireless executives ask, ‘Why would a customer switch? It’s clearly not because they have a broader cellular network,'” he said. “That’s exactly the point.”

He argued Starlink is not trying to out-build T-Mobile’s network, but to offer something terrestrial operators cannot easily replicate: a single service combining terrestrial and satellite connectivity, spanning cities, rural areas, highways, mountains and water, with plans to eventually extend worldwide.

Adderton drew a comparison to Uber, arguing consumers did not choose the service because it built better roads, but because it created a better experience on infrastructure which already existed.

He explained the mistake operators make is assuming customers are shopping for another mobile network, when they may instead be shopping for connectivity which “just works”.

Adderton also took aim at the broader response from operator executives to Starlink’s mobile ambitions, suggesting a coordinated messaging effort.

“Seems every MNO CEO in the JV got the same script and, credit where credit’s due, they’re sticking to it beautifully,” he wrote on X. “Their PR teams must be very proud. Not a rogue talking point in sight.”

Plans
Gopalan’s reported comments were made before Elon Musk confirmed SpaceX plans to build a US mobile service.

On SpaceX’s Q2 earnings call, Musk said Starlink’s terrestrial mobile network would likely offer better connectivity and higher bandwidth than what is currently available from mobile operators.

SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell said she expects to draw a significant number of customers from AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile, with Starlink Mobile satellites launching in 2027 and services due to commence by the year-end.

Gopalan told FT satellite technology would remain “complementary” to existing networks rather than a replacement.

T-Mobile is one of several operators which holds satellite access deals with SpaceX to supplement rural coverage.

FT reported Gopalan also addressed T-Mobile’s growth strategy, stating it aims to more than double its broadband customer base to 20 million within four years and grow its rural market share beyond its current 24%.

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SK Hynix outlined plans to invest KRW54 trillion ($38.3 billion) in two new semiconductor manufacturing plants in South Korea, stepping up production capacity to meet long-term demand for AI memory.

The South Korean chipmaker will invest KRW35.2 trillion in its Yongin Y2 fabrication plant in the Seoul Metropolitan Area, which will produce high-bandwidth memory (HBM) and other next-generation dynamic random access memory (DRAM) products. Meanwhile, KRW19.1 trillion is earmarked for a second facility, Cheongju M17, in central South Korea to manufacture NAND flash memory chips, with the company arguing the city “offers the fastest fab construction timeline”.

The latest investment forms part of a wider manufacturing push. In June, SK Hynix unveiled plans to invest KRW600 trillion in the Yongin Semiconductor Cluster and KRW100 trillion to expand its Cheongju production base.

Yongin Y2 will become the second of four planned fabs in the Yongin Semiconductor Cluster. Construction of the plant is due to begin in July 2027, while work on the Cheongju M17 fab is scheduled to start in February 2027. The company aims to complete all four planned fabrication plants by 2033, bringing forward the original timeline by 12 years.

The latest commitment comes amid strong demand for AI memory requiring large volumes of HBM. SK Hynix explained demand for NAND memory is “surging rapidly”, adding its investment followed “a thorough review of market demand”. Citing forecasts by Omdia, it noted global DRAM and NAND demand is expected to grow at a compound annual rate of 19% through 2030.

The company noted “in the AI era, technological competitiveness alone is not enough”, arguing the “ability to supply the required volume at the exact moment customers need it is the ultimate competitive advantage”.

In June, South Korean President Lee Jae-myung unveiled a long-term AI and semiconductor initiative led by Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix expected to exceed $1 trillion by 2035.

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ByteDance is reportedly in the process of developing an AI model which could rival Anthropic’s Mythos system as part of a bid to establish itself as a leader in China’s AI ecosystem.

Financial Times (FT) reported the TikTok owner is in the early stages of training a model with as many as 10 trillion parameters.

This would put ByteDance’s offering ahead of Anthropic’s cutting-edge Mythos and make it three-times larger than Moonshot Kimi K3, the biggest model to come out of China so far.

While Anthropic does not reveal the size of its models, FT reported the most advanced Mythos 5 system has 8 trillion parameters and its Fable 5 about 5 trillion.

ByteDance’s model is apparently being pre-trained, a stage in development which typically takes three-to-six-months. It would then be fine-tuned and released, provided there are no issues.

Chinese companies are showing their hand with regards to AI model development, with Moonshot and Alibaba highlighting releases in recent weeks.

FT added ByteDance invested more aggressively in AI than other Chinese companies, building data centres and attracting talent in the sector.

Founder Zhang Yiming reportedly told staff he wants the team to target “world-leading model capabilities” during an internal meeting last month.

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The chief executives of some of the biggest operator groups in Europe warned massive amounts of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) are still exchanged online each year and pressed authorities to give them the power to block it.

Margherita Della Valle from Vodafone Group, Christel Heydemann at Orange, Benedicte Schilbred Fasmer with Telenor Group and Allison Kirkby at BT Group want authorities to provide their companies with the legal clarity to prevent the sharing of more than 100 million CSAM files each year.

They have written an open letter to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, European Parliament President Roberta Metsola and European Council President Antonio Costa warning the trading of CSAM material online is “at industrial scale”.

The CEOs argue differences in legal frameworks makes it difficult for telecom and internet service providers to fully pull their weight in tackling the problem, making the removal of barriers to “blocking access to domains and URLs” linked with CSAM a matter of urgency.

The CEOs believe an organisation with the oversight to identify and tackle CSAM throughout the European Union is necessary. They also want interim measures to the same end while such a group is being set-up.

Equally, the executives believe any such authority must be strictly overseen and its focus kept squarely on CSAM.

They called for governments in the region not within the EU to join the efforts with their own legal frameworks.

“Children need protection now, not in several years’ time.”

“The scale of abuse demands decisive action, so Europe must show global leadership.”

Unacceptable
Della Valle, Heydemann, Fasmer and Kirkby pointed to Internet Watch Foundation statistics indicating 62% of “confirmed CSAM web pages” were hosted in the EU in 2024.

A cyber tipline operated by the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children “receives tens of millions of reports” involving children mostly aged between seven-and ten-years old.

“Girls are disproportionately targeted”, the executives noted.

They branded it “simply unacceptable” for CSAM to remain accessible due to delays in removing it at the source.

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Mobile World Live (MWL) brings you our top three picks of the week as SpaceX CEO Elon Musk outlined Starlink’s global broadband ambitions, Verizon lifted the lid on the network behind the FIFA World Cup 2026 and the World Bank urged developing nations to boost AI adoption.

Musk targets global broadband domination with Starlink

What happened: Musk outlined plans to increase Starlink’s network capacity 100-fold, claiming the satellite broadband business could eventually “deliver a majority of the world’s internet”.

Why it matters:  The tech mogul said the goal hinges on the rollout of an expanded V3 satellite constellation capable of delivering around 10 times the performance of current V2 models. To support the plan, the company asked the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for approval to deploy up to 100,000 low-Earth-orbit V3 satellites, supplementing the roughly 9,600 V2 satellites already in orbit. Musk argued the additional capacity would allow Starlink to eventually carry a majority of global internet traffic in countries where the service is authorised to operate, while driving a tenfold increase in Starlink revenue even if revenue per bit falls by 90%. Quilty Space founder and CEO Chris Quilty told MWL that the company’s “bold claim” flouts its “prior statements that Starlink was most appropriate for rural user”. While V3 satellites are expected to provide a “10x boost”, he noted “aggregate network capacity is a misleading metric because capacity is geographically distributed while demand is geographically concentrated”. Earlier this week, SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell claimed that Starlink Mobile could compete directly with operators including AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile US using upgraded satellites and additional spectrum.

Musk targets global broadband domination with Starlink

Podcast: Inside Verizon’s World Cup connectivity

What happened: In the latest edition of the MWL podcast, Kavit and Justin sat down with Verizon wireless chief network officer Srini Kalapala, who detailed how the operator delivered connectivity as the official network provider for the FIFA World Cup 2026.

Why it matters: Earlier this month, the operator revealed its network carried almost 500TB of data across all US host stadiums, including 29.2TB during the final between Argentina and Spain. To handle demand, Verizon boosted stadium capacity by three to five times, installed thousands of under-seat antennas, deployed nearly 140 small cells around venues and fan zones, and laid 80,000 miles of fibre to transport broadcast feeds from all World Cup stadiums. In the podcast, Kalapala described the tournament’s “104 games in 39 days across 18 different stadiums in three countries” as “probably one of the largest projects that we worked on.” He explained Verizon had to ensure stadiums comprising 70,000 to 85,000 people could access “good quality mobile connectivity”, while also delivering “the most reliable network” for broadcasters and powering private 5G applications including referee cameras.

Podcast: Inside Verizon’s World Cup connectivity

World Bank urges lower income nations to grasp AI opportunity

What happened: The World Bank called on developing economies to accelerate AI adoption, arguing low-cost, locally adapted tools could accelerate economic development without requiring frontier models or hefty AI infrastructure investments.

Why it matters: In its World Development Report 2026: The Promise of Artificial Intelligence, the organisation said AI “could allow developing countries to do in a decade what might otherwise take a century”, provided governments address gaps in electricity, internet access, digital skills and institutions. World Bank SVP and chief economist Indermit Gill said AI has “thrown developing economies a lifeline”, but warned countries “must hurry” because the technology is “spreading faster and is more context-specific than earlier general-purpose technologies”. He added many high-impact use cases do not require large models or data centres, instead relying on “small, low-cost AI tools” tailored to local conditions. The report highlighted applications across healthcare, agriculture, tax collection and judicial services, while warning AI could also deepen inequality and weaken public trust without appropriate action. Foresight Communications Consultancy CEO Howaida Nadim argued the World Bank’s framework recognises that “greater opportunity lies in adopting proven tools and adapting them to local languages, data, institutions and development priorities”. She added “the next AI divide” might be “between those that successfully adapt AI to their development needs and those that remain primarily consumers of systems built elsewhere”.

World Bank urges lower income nations to grasp AI opportunity

The post The Friday File: Starlink; Verizon; World Bank appeared first on Mobile World Live.

The European Commission (EC) and the European Space Agency (ESA) named Spain-based Hispasat as the lead contractor for its IRIS2 European satellite network, handing it a budget of more than €1.6 billion.

Owned by Spanish defence company Indra Group, Hispasat has been charged with providing antenna infrastructure, control systems and ground network connectivity for IRIS2.

It will also lead the development of the system’s very low Earth orbit layer, operating at altitudes below 750km. This layer is designed to provide direct connectivity services to mobile devices and for IoT, providing access for European startups and SMEs.

The agreement further guarantees Hispasat access to non-geostationary orbits in regions of high strategic interest, complementing its range of capabilities and geographic coverage.

To that end, Hispasat has committed an investment of up to €600 million in exchange for obtaining “exploitation rights” in regions of high strategic interest and commercial value for the business it already operates through its geostationary fleet.

The award comes following talks between the EC, ESA and SpaceRISE, a satellite consortium formed between Eutelsat, SES and Hispasat.

Luis Mayo, CEO of Hispasat, noted the agreement helps it strengthen its position among the leaders of the European space industry and in its main business areas.

The IRIS2 programme will deploy a network of 330 new LEO satellites and 12 medium earth orbit (MEO) birds, with initial services due to begin in 2030. In total, €15.6 billion will be invested in the project, with €11.6 billion coming from public funds and €4 billion from the SpaceRISE consortium.

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NTT Docomo Business partnered with Chilean state-owned copper mining company Codelco to assess the viability of remotely operating heavy machinery over high capacity, low latency communications architecture.

The pair plan to connect the El Teniente mine to a remote operations centre 1,500km away using an Innovative Optical and Wireless Network All Photonic Network (IOWN APN), which the technology company hopes will provide the means for remote operations and HD video monitoring at the site.  

For Codelco the test is part of an ambition to up safety and efficiency at its mines. It aims to move towards advanced monitoring and remote operations, partly to address working condition issues including easing a risk of mine collapses.

NTT noted the mining company was also struggling from a lack of access to skilled operators.  

Among the specific areas set to be assessed in the project are: the type of communication environment needed; evaluation of network configurations with a view to cutting down the number of operations centres required; and examining the use of IOWN APN more generally in the mining sector.

NTT noted it planned to use insights from this project to create new use cases for IOWN APN technology, which the company has been heavily pushing for industrial uses.  

“The company will explore the potential for further applications in the mining and energy sectors, as well as across other sectors where remote operations are required,” it added.

The project is part of a research programme commissioned by Japan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications.

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The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted to explore ways to deliver direct satellite connectivity to unlicensed devices using 200MHz of related spectrum to advance services requiring handoff between terrestrial and non-terrestrial links.

It stated the move could give consumers an “additional option for reliable connectivity”, as investment in direct-to-device (D2D) services continues to grow.

The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) examines potential reforms to enable devices operating in certain part 15 bands communicate with FCC-authorised satellites.

Part 15 rules govern unlicensed wireless equipment widely used by businesses and consumers. The FCC stated the move is intended to expand opportunities for Wi-Fi and applications including IoT which “benefit from more robust wireless connectivity”.

It also proposed clarifying part 15-authorised equipment may be used within and between authorised spacecraft.

The FCC intends to explore further scenarios “in which part 15 devices might” safely and effectively operate in space,

Money maker
FCC chair Brendan Carr said the move builds on 18-months of regulatory steps to enable D2D services, including freeing up spectrum, providing certainty around buildout milestones, and clarifying exclusivity and legal rights to encourage investment.

He said the measures had helped generate tens of billions of dollars in D2D deal flow.

“For the first time in FCC history, we are exploring whether D2D services are technically possible in more than 200 MHz of unlicensed spectrum,” he said.

“These frequencies could yield more capacity to complement D2D services and encourage experimentation.”

He added unlicensed spectrum already underpins a wide range of household devices and innovations, and the proposal would seek to ensure the bands continue to support existing services.

The proposal targets the 902MHz to 928MHz, 2400MHz to 2483.5MHz and 5725MHz to 5850MHz bands traditionally used for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth which already permit unlicensed devices to operate at the relatively higher power levels needed for satellite communication.

Along with seeking comments, the FCC is asking whether part 15 devices communicating with satellites should require an additional part 25 earth station certification.

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Tampa Electric Company (TECO) selected Ericsson and OneLayer to deploy, manage and secure its growing private LTE network, with Burns & McDonnell providing integration and engineering expertise.

Ericsson stated TECO is among the first investor-owned utilities in the US to deploy the private network technology for operational use.

The network uses the Swedish vendor’s kit and supports connectivity for operational devices across TECO’s delivery infrastructure. It will expand as more connected devices come online in the coming years.

OneLayer’s Bridge platform provides SIM lifecycle management and device onboarding. It also provides real time visibility into connected devices across TECO’s operational infrastructure.

Burns & McDonnell is responsible for aligning the deployment with existing systems and operational requirements.

Following the deployment, TECO’s operations teams will be able to onboard and provision cellular-connected devices through automated workflow, which Ericsson noted cuts down the manual effort needed to bring new assets onto the network.

Teams also gain visibility into devices behind cellular routers and customer premises equipment, which were previously difficult to monitor. The system allows the tracking of device status location, and connectivity in real time across distributed field sites.

TECO plans to deploy tens of thousands of devices over the next five years with several thousand targeted in the first phase.

Ericsson stated the approach gives TECO a private, high-reliability broadband platform. It supports grid protection, field workforce communications and sensor connectivity. It also provides a path to evolve to 5G as requirements grow.

Dana Jaber, head of mission critical networks at Ericsson Americas, stated the deployment sets a new benchmark “for how utilities can scale secure, high-reliability private cellular networks to support tens of thousands of devices and future 5G requirements”.

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Zayo partnered with Nvidia to build out critical network capacity aimed at supporting AI factories, as the digital infrastructure provider looks to close a widening gap between compute demand and available network bandwidth.

Through the collaboration, Zayo is constructing more than 8,000 miles of new long-haul fibre across fast-growing AI corridors, alongside a significant expansion of capacity across its existing infrastructure.

The work spans 24 total routes, comprising six new long-haul routes, 10 overbuilds of existing network across high-demand markets, and eight existing fibre routes.

Nvidia is a Zayo customer and will have significant access to capacity across all the new and overbuilt routes.

Zayo CEO Steve Smith stated AI is reshaping where and how network infrastructure needs to be built across the US, adding the company has invested heavily in modelling where AI-driven demand will emerge so it can expand infrastructure ahead of that demand.

He said Zayo is combining decades of experience building and operating large-scale network infrastructure with Nvidia’s accelerated computing capabilities to support AI connectivity across North America.

Zayo said the expansion is designed to benefit the broader AI ecosystem beyond the largest hyperscalers, including neoclouds, frontier model developers, and enterprises across sectors such as healthcare, finance, and manufacturing.

Over the past 18 months, Zayo has expanded its AI-focused network buildout to more than 15,000 route miles across North America.

Its recently completed acquisition of Crown Castle’s fibre and small cell assets added 90,000 metro route miles and 40,000 on-net enterprise locations, strengthening the company’s metro density for AI inference workloads.

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SpaceX outlined plans to build a massive semiconductor fabrication facility in the US state of Texas, with an initial investment of more than $16.8 billion designed to support growing demand for AI chips across its satellite and space operations.

Texas governor Greg Abbott announced the first phase of the Terafab project, which is expected to create 3,000 jobs and has been backed by a $30 million Texas Enterprise Fund grant. The project also qualifies for incentives through the state’s Jobs, Energy, Technology, and Innovation programme.

The planned 100-million-square-foot site in Grimes County, Texas, will combine logic, memory and advanced packaging under one roof, enabling SpaceX to consolidate parts of the semiconductor production chain as it seeks to avoid constraints in global chip supply.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk stated the facility will help the company produce AI chips at scale for use on Earth and in space. The project is expected to support future hardware requirements across Starlink, Starship and broader space infrastructure.

Abbott stated Texas was selected because of its business climate, workforce, infrastructure and logistics advantages. Local officials said the development could provide a long-term economic boost for Grimes County and Southeast Texas, with roles spanning engineering, technical operations and plant management.

The investment deepens SpaceX’s presence in Texas, where it already operates its Starbase headquarters, a site in Cameron County and a Starlink manufacturing facility in Bastrop.

SpaceX is pitching Terafab as part of a wider push to secure in-house chip capacity for next-generation aerospace, connectivity and AI workloads, as demand for customised compute grows across the company’s satellite broadband and launch businesses.

Intel also signed up for the project by working with SpaceX, Tesla and xAI to help refactor silicon fab technology at Terafab and support an ambition to produce 1-terrawatt of compute annually for AI and robotics workloads.

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Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison brought in the big guns of its parent, Nokia and Nvidia to help it develop fresh infrastructure to meet the demand for AI computing in Southeast Asia and beyond, with an initial 1GW target.

The Indonesian operator’s Zankore by Indosat play is to employ Nvidia’s DSX AI Factory reference design as part of an ambitious plan to establish the nation as a regional compute hub.

It aims to provide the first 200MW of capacity in H1 2027, running an Nvidia GB300 NVL72 rack. Information from the chip company indicates the set up uses 72 of its Blackwell Ultra GPUs and 36 Arm-architected CPUs to provide additional reasoning capabilities.

Zankore by Indosat is also employing the Nvidia DSX MaxLPS technology suite, which the chip player separately explained provides ways to “maximise token performance per MW within a fixed power budget”.

Put more plainly, the suite is designed to offer the lowest-possible token cost by optimising power use across the line of GPUs to unlock fuelling which might otherwise be stuck in less useful areas.

The operator’s parent Ooredoo Group is the lead investor and platform sponsor, an arrangement noted to bring access to long-term capital and regional scale.

Nokia is providing AI-native network infrastructure.

Zankore by Indosat appointed ex-Ericsson and T-Mobile US executive Ulf Ewaldsson as CEO, along with establishing a board comprising representatives from principal shareholders and independent members.

Meutya Hafid, the Indonesian Minister of Communication and Digital Affairs, said the nation is advantageously placed to provide AI compute capacity throughout Southeast Asia and the Zankore by Indosat move would speed development of sovereign capabilities to the benefit of “businesses and society”.

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China’s cyberspace agency launched an investigation into products sold in the country by Palo Alto Networks, as the government turns up the heat on US suppliers.

In a short statement, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) explained it had launched a cybersecurity review into the company, as part of its bid to ensure safe and stable operation of critical information infrastructure, prevent risks and vulnerabilities, and safeguard national security.

It did not disclose potential penalties for violations or which products it is looking into.

Palo Alto states on its website it has offices in Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Macau. It sells network, cloud and other cybersecurity products in the country, but does not break out individual sales figures for the market.

China’s review comes the same week its commerce ministry barred domestic companies from doing business with seven US entities, while beefing up export controls on the US drone market.

Reuters reported Beijing has said the moves are in response to recent US restrictions impacting the Chinese technology sector, including controls put on the nation’s telecoms operators.

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AT&T picked vendor partner Ericsson to supply 600MHz dual-band radios as it works to put newly acquired spectrum from EchoStar to use across its wireless network.

The operator stated the move is part of its ongoing effort to boost capacity, coverage, and performance nationwide, with a particular focus on improving reliability in harder-to-reach places, including indoors and in rural areas.

AT&T explained the 600MHz spectrum is especially valuable because it can travel farther and penetrate buildings more effectively than some higher-frequency spectrum, helping customers stay connected in more locations, whether at home, at work, or on the move.

It is more than 60% of the way through a broader wireless network modernisation effort. In areas already upgraded with Ericsson infrastructure, AT&T said customers are seeing up to a twofold improvement in average speeds, a 10% reduction in dropped and blocked calls, and up to a 70% reduction in instances of slower data speeds. Standardising equipment at the top of cell towers has also cut uplink interference by as much as 80%, the operator said.

Ericsson was selected through an open, competitive process to supply the 600MHz dual-band radios, which will enable the operator to deploy uplink-enhancing 8RX technology across low-band spectrum for the first time.

AT&T noted the work is designed to strengthen the network for AI-driven applications, including content creation, sharing, and real-time interaction, building on the companies’ previously announced collaboration to accelerate open RAN deployment.

“We’re more than halfway through our wireless network modernisation, and we’re executing to plan,” said Yigal Elbaz, SVP and Network CTO at AT&T. “By combining our newly acquired 600MHz spectrum with Ericsson’s advanced radios, we’re improving coverage and performance for customers today while building a more modern, flexible network for the future.”

Dyon Agnew, SVP and head of Customer Unit AT&T at Ericsson Americas, said the deployment demonstrates the impact open architectures can have on performance at scale, adding that the two companies are working to deliver faster speeds and more consistent coverage across the US.

AT&T said it will share further details on timing and commercial availability of the 600MHz deployment at a later date.

It received final approval for the $23 billion EchoStar deal in July 2026. AT&T started deploying the 3.45GHz spectrum it bought from EchoStar last year through a short-term spectrum manager lease.

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Rakuten Mobile expanded the capabilities of its corporate generative AI service by incorporating Anthropic’s Claude model.

The Japanese operator is employing the model to boost the research and data analysis capabilities of Rakuten AI for Business, a shift it stated would help companies to make decisions.

Research capabilities cover collection and organisation of external information, a function Rakuten expects to help companies conduct market research, assess their competition and plan strategy.

The data analysis element involves assessing internal data to highlight trends and present the information in a comprehensible format. Rakuten expects the facility to help staff “without specialised data science backgrounds” with decision-making.

It explained the greater decision-making capability could hold benefits for departments including sales, planning and administration.

Anthropic’s model adds to existing OpenAI ChatGPT-5 functions available on Rakuten AI for Business covering meeting summaries, creating emails and project planning.

Rakuten emphasised its AI service is secure, with safeguards in place to prevent the technology accessing data without permission.

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Deutsche Telekom CEO Tim Hoettges declared all areas of the business delivered impressive growth in the first half of 2026, highlighting continued momentum in the US and demand for its MagentaTV service in Germany fuelled by the football World Cup.

An earnings statement for Q2 2026 showed group revenue rose 4.4% year-on-year to €29.9 billion, while net profit was up 11.1% to €2.8 billion. The top line growth was driven by a 5.2% increase in the US to €19.6 billion and a 3.5% uplift in Germany to €6.5 billion. T-Mobile US earnings were reported on 23 July.

The rest of Europe rose 1.5% to €3.2 billion, while Systems Solutions was a sour point with revenue declining 13.4% to €998 million.

In Germany, the second quarter “was dominated by the FIFA World Cup”, with the company broadcasting all of the matches on MagentaTV. It said a million new customers signed up to the TV offering, with a large majority opting for its flex rate plans.

The company also pointed to an increase of 161,000 customers for its fibre offering and 218,000 new contract subscribers in mobile.

In Europe, it added 189,000 mobile contract customers, 56,000 broadband net additions and 16,000 across various TV offerings.

The decline in Systems Solutions was put down to low orders, however it still anticipates an overall rise over the full year.

For the full year, the company increased its guidance for free cash flow after leases from €19.8 billion to around €20 billion.

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Google CEO Sundar Pichai (pictured) revealed a major shake-up within its AI division, with DeepMind co-founder and CEO Demis Hassabis stepping back from day-to-day operational management to focus on overarching strategy, AGI and scientific breakthroughs.

Under the new leadership structure, Koray Kavukcuoglu, former CTO of Google DeepMind and chief AI architect, steps up as SVP of Google DeepMind, reporting directly to Pichai.

Kavukcuoglu, who has been with DeepMind for 13 years and previously led foundational projects like WaveNet and Deep Q-Networks, will now directly oversee Gemini model development, frontier AI research and developer ecosystems.

Hassabis transitions into a newly created strategic role as chair of Google DeepMind and chief scientist of Alphabet.

In a note sent to employees, Pichai stated the shift allows Hassabis to dedicate his attention to shaping the long-term future of AGI and scientific applications, alongside his ongoing leadership at drug-discovery subsidiary Isomorphic Labs.

Hassabis expressed confidence in the transition, emphasising  he plans to focus on broad strategic initiatives and high-impact applications of AI in healthcare, particularly accelerating efforts to treat major diseases.

The executive shift comes at a period of rapid product momentum for the internet giant’s AI stack.

According to internal metrics shared by Pichai, the flagship Gemini consumer application has surged past 950 million monthly active users, while the open-weights Gemma model family has surpassed 900 million downloads.

The reorganisation also marks the end of an era for two foundational figures in modern computing infrastructure.

Jeff Dean, Google’s chief scientist and long-time head of Google AI, is departing after 27 years alongside Google senior fellow Sanjay Ghemawat.

The pair are launching independent public benefit company aimed at applying machine learning to scientific and engineering discoveries. Google will serve as a founding investor and cloud infrastructure partner for the new entity, maintaining an active collaborative research framework on advanced systems.

“Jeff Dean is at a moment where he wants to try something new, and we’re excited to support him in that,” Pichai stated.

As competition in model capabilities intensifies across the industry, Google is doubling down on its full-stack approach which spans custom silicon, cloud infrastructure, and consumer applications to seek an edge in the race toward advanced AI.

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SpaceX CEO Elon Musk (pictured) highlighted an ambitious growth plan for the company’s Starlink broadband service, forecasting a hundredfold increase in total delivered bandwidth driven by its next-generation V3 satellite constellation.

Speaking on SpaceX’s first earnings call as a public company, Musk and president Gwynne Shotwell detailed a long-term strategy to capture a majority of global internet traffic in accessible markets.

To support the push, the operator recently applied to the Federal Communications Commission seeking approval to deploy up to 100,000 low-Earth-orbit satellites for its V3 satellite network, supplementing the approximately 9,600 broadband V2 birds currently in orbit.

SpaceX’s Starlink broadband customers doubled to 12 million year-over-year despite price increases for the service. Starlink ended Q2 with service availability in 167 markets “with some very exciting announcements coming soon,” he said.

Those numbers are the tip of the iceberg, according to Musk.  

“This is a big deal,” he said. “It’s kind of hard for people to wrap their minds around this, but it’s not out of the question that at some point, Starlink will deliver a majority of the world’s internet, at least in countries where we’re allowed to operate.”

Musk stated individual Starlink V3 satellites deliver roughly 10 times the performance of V2 models. While V2 hardware typically maxes out between 100Mb/s and 450Mb/s depending on network congestion, the V3 constellation deployment is designed to unlock gigabit-class downlinks for standard end users.

Musk stated a V3 Starlink bird will launch on Starship flight 14, but this time they’ll enter an “operational orbit.” Last month’s Starship flight sent up a batch of V3 satellites as part of a suborbital test.

“The Starlink V3 satellite is about an order of magnitude more capable than the Starlink V2 satellite, which was already a very capable satellite,” he explained. “And we expect to launch about an order of magnitude more Starlink V3 satellites.

Combined with plans to launch 10 times as many V3 birds, the upgraded constellation is projected to increase overall bandwidth capacity by two orders of magnitude. He emphasised that even if revenue per bit decreased by 90%, the expansion will still drive a tenfold increase in Starlink revenue.

“It’s certainly a bold claim and one that contravenes the company’s prior statements that Starlink was most appropriate for rural users,” Quilty Space founder and CEO Chris Quilty told Mobile World Live. “Starlink V3 will provide a 10x boost, reaching 8Pb/s of downlink capacity, but aggregate network capacity is a misleading metric because capacity is geographically distributed while demand is geographically concentrated.”

AI compute capacity
SpaceX ended Q2 with 1.4 gigawatts of compute capacity, up from 1 gigawatt in the prior quarter and 400 megawatts a year ago.

“We expect to end this year with over 2 gigawatts of compute,” Musk stated.

Asked about the outlook for compute capacity, Musk revised his earlier target upward on the call. Rather than the roughly 10 gigawatts previously floated for the end of 2027, he said SpaceX is now aiming for approximately 15 gigawatts of power and cooling capacity online by the end of next year, with a stretch goal of 20 gigawatts.

“We’re actually aiming to far exceed that gigawatt number in terms of power online, power cooling, and electrical equipment,” he explained.

“I don’t think we’re going to achieve 20 gigawatts, but we want to have a series of projects that cumulatively come to 20 gigawatts by the end of next year,” he added. “Our goal is to have far more power, cooling, and electrical equipment than we have GPUs. That’s a logical thing to do given the relative expense of GPUs.”

He said SpaceX is taking the expertise it uses for rockets and satellites and applying it to scaling terrestrial data centres.

“SpaceX as a company is incredibly good at hardware,” Musk said.

Going forward on data centres, Musk said SpaceX has decided “to build exclusively on Nvidia, because we think the Vera Rubin is the best architecture.”

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