Iris exited stealth with a $43 million commitment from Balesia Group and launched its financial network for telecom operators, with Bolivia-based VIVA the first licensed operator to go live.

Iris helps telecom operators monetise economic activity flowing across their infrastructure rather than allowing hyperscalers and app developers to capture most of the value generated on their networks.

Operators plug their identity, billing and distribution systems into Iris to add revenue-generating services such as advertising, settlement reconciliation and financial services without replacing their existing technology.

Iris operates its own network on Avalanche, which provides the blockchain infrastructure for transactions to settle on-chain.

Payments across the Iris network settle in USDi, a dollar-backed stablecoin issued and redeemed by US-based stablecoin infrastructure company Agora. Businesses use it to pay one another while keeping operating reserves in dollars rather than leaving cash idle.

VIVA CEO Ryan Alvarez stated the company is investing heavily in infrastructure to bring subscribers into the digital economy.

“Iris lets us create more value from what we’ve already built, including new revenue streams that didn’t exist before, and helps transform us into a platform for new products and services,” he stated.

Scalability
Iris cited McKinsey data showing global mobile data traffic grew more than 50% a year between 2012 and 2025, while operator service revenue over the same period grew barely 1% a year, with hyperscalers capturing most of the economic value created by the traffic. The company stated Iris is built to close that gap.

Iris CEO Jules Miller explained operators have spent years watching others get paid for building on top of the infrastructure they operate.

“Now Iris gives them the tools to turn those assets into new products and new revenue streams,” she said. “VIVA saw that opportunity early, and our partnership is already proving the model works and is highly scalable in the real world.”

Balesia Group owns and operates nine operating companies across eight countries in the Americas.

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SES unveiled plans to establish direct-to-device (D2D) satellite manufacturing capabilities and a supply chain in Europe with Elveo Mobile as part of an expanded collaboration aimed at accelerating the delivery of services in the region.

Elveo Mobile is the result of a merger between Lynk Global and Omnispace which included SES becoming a major shareholder of the combined entity.

As part of the expanded collaboration, SES will use Elveo’s patented technology to enable mobile roaming for European consumers, businesses, governments, institutions, and defence users.

SES and Elveo Mobile will collaborate to establish manufacturing capabilities and a robust European supply chain for low Earth orbit (LEO) D2D satellites using Elveo’s satellite bus, payload and software technology stack.

The satellites will form part of a multi-orbit architecture combining Elveo’s network with SES’ geostationary (GEO) and medium Earth orbit (MEO) systems, designed to deliver secure and reliable connectivity to European governments and institutions, including NATO.

SES stated European customers also stand to benefit from its global distribution of Elveo’s offering, which use the latter’s high-priority 2GHz s-band spectrum rights and a global market-access footprint currently covering more than 1 billion people.

SES CEO Adel Al-Saleh stated European consumer, commercial and government users deserve resilient, secure multi-orbit connectivity, adding the company is preparing to deliver it by combining SES’s networks with Elveo’s D2D services.

Elveo chief Ramu Potarazu, a former Lynk Global CEO, described SES as the right partner for bringing D2D services to Europe.

“By working closely with SES, we are confident we can accelerate access to critical D2D connectivity for European mobile operators and governments that depend on them,” Potarazu stated.

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Intel-backed Altera confidentially filed for a listing in the US, adding to a frenzy of IPO-related activity in the technology sector in 2026.

In a short statement, the company disclosed it had submitted the registration with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The number of shares and the price range for the listing was not revealed. Reuters reported last week the firm was preparing the move, with plans to raise more than $2 billion.

Altera makes programmable chips used in data centres, telecoms networks, AI applications and for aerospace and defence systems.

Intel offloaded a 51% majority stake in the business to private equity company Silver Lake last year, a deal that gave Altera a valuation of around $8.8 billion.

As part of the sale, Intel remained on board as a strategic partner and retained the remaining 49%. It acquired the company in 2015 for $17 billion.

Bloomberg reported US IPO activity has soared on the back of large AI investment.

SpaceX set the pace with a record-breaking IPO that raised $75 billion, while SK Hynix raised $29 billion in what was the largest-ever US listing by a foreign company.

There is also more tipped to come, with AI rivals OpenAI and Anthropic in line for market debuts in the next year.

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Juniper Research predicted a bright future for private mobile network spending due to heightened demand for infrastructure capable of extracting the full benefits of AI in business operations.

The company expects outlay on private LTE and 5G networks to hit $84.7 billion in 2031 compared with $17.3 billion this year.

Juniper Research suggested infrastructure providers may reap the greatest benefits by partnering with companies specialising in enterprise AI systems and positioning private networks “as a natural part” of modernisation initiated by the technology.

It argued private networks “are increasingly becoming the default way” to meet the connectivity requirements of AI.

VP of research Nick Maynard believes differentiation will emerge as the secret of future vendor success.

He highlighted “proven Industry 4.0, operational technology and mission-critical applications” as fields where vendors could fully establish an edge on rivals, pointing to services including automated guided vehicles, machine vision, and predictive maintenance and industrial control operations as prime opportunities.

To capitalise, private network vendors should “develop architecture that is repeatable, but highly tailored to individual sectors”, Maynard advised.

Juniper Research ranked current equipment vendors based on their shift “away from general enterprise connectivity” towards systems specific to industrial use cases.

It did not offer any big surprises in a top-five ranking of vendors in the here and now, with Nokia leading Huawei, Samsung, HPE and Ericsson, respectively.

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Verizon expanded its 6G Innovation Forum (6GIF) with nine new members, broadening the industry group it launched in 2025 to support development of an open and diverse 6G ecosystem.

The new members are Amazon Web Services, Cisco, Intel, Keysight Technologies, MediaTek, Nvidia, Palo Alto Networks, Rohde & Schwarz and Viavi Solutions. They join founding members Ericsson, Samsung, Nokia, Meta and Qualcomm Technologies.

“By expanding our Innovation Forum and refining live edge-AI trials today, we are ensuring the AI-native 6G network is built from day one to scale 5G Advanced capabilities and translate these next-generation technologies into meaningful, real-world experiences for our customers,” stated Verizon’s Yago Tenorio, CTO and SVP of Technology Development.

Tenorio described the forum’s approach as bottom-up and driven by use cases. Its work focuses on 6G support for AI workloads, wearables including untethered smart glasses, and integrated sensing and communication (ISAC).

The forum will trial use cases, test spectrum bands and bandwidth, and coordinate with standards bodies including 3GPP.

Verizon stated the new members bring expertise in cloud services, silicon and computing, automated testing, network security and immersive graphics simulation.

Verizon also highlighted recent ISAC field trials with founding members Samsung and Qualcomm.

ISAC, viewed as an important capability for future 6G networks, enables mobile infrastructure to function as a radar-like sensing platform. Operators and vendors have begun demonstrating the technology in live environments.

Using 5G-Advanced capabilities, the companies showed how ISAC can support public safety, environmental awareness and event management, creating a path to evolve those functionalities with 6G.

Verizon also called out a prototype of AI Sports Companion as part of its work to design infrastructure around future application requirements. It said AI-native devices and wearables such as smart glasses will require ultra-low latency and a more balanced uplink-downlink model because they will upload substantially more data than current devices.

Built on the Verizon Edge Network, the prototype paired Meta AI glasses with a locally optimised small language model, an Nvidia DGX Spark unit and real-time sports data from SportsDataIO.

Users can ask verbally for player statistics, score analysis or win probabilities and receive spoken answers without checking a phone.

Verizon said the prototype explores how future technology could reduce app switching and provide real-time information without distracting fans from the game.

Members of 6GIF will continue sharing findings from demonstrations involving ISAC, digital twins, robotics, AI and advanced wearables.

Verizon identified the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California, as an interim test bed ahead of commercial 6G deployments. Its 6G Lab in the city will be used to test network capacity and early AI-native use cases.

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SES launched the final three birds in its 13-satellite O3b mPOWER medium Earth orbit constellation, adding thrust to its connectivity play for enterprise, cloud service providers, governments and mobile operators.

The company is now in the process of commissioning the trio, which it expects to be fully operational by mid-2027.

SES noted the satellites would extend the availability of “high-performance connectivity”; improve the resilience of the O3b mPOWER constellation; advance sovereign data capabilities; and boost the relay of data through space.

CEO Adel Al-Saleh said SES is combining “multiple technologies and orbits” to meet the needs of customers across various sectors.

The satellites support SES’ work to “deliver resilient, secure and scalable connectivity”.

SES’ satellites flew on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket yesterday (13 September). The 10 birds already in orbit can handle data rates “ranging from tens of Mb/s to multiple Gb/s”, the company stated.

The trio run a Boeing software-defined payload technology which the aerospace player separately explained enables them to “dynamically route bandwidth, focus beam power and adjust capacity in real time”.

Boeing stated companies in the cruise line sector, “government organisations, civil entities, mobile operators and commercial airlines” use SES’ existing O3b mPOWER satellites.

“Technology is at its best when it has a direct line-of-sight to human impact,” Ryan Reid, president of Boeing Satellite Systems International, declared.

Reid added SES’ satellites deliver the in-space baseline for a dual-use satellite architecture Boeing developed to work in multiple orbits.

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Samsung Electronics and Verizon turned live 5G radio signals into real-time crowd heatmaps during a large international football fan event, marking a major field trial for 6G-ready Integrated Sensing and Communication (ISAC) on commercial virtualised RAN (vRAN).

The companies stated the trial in Dallas, Texas proved how sensing networks can enable real-time intelligence for large-scale events in venues such as sports stadiums.

While Samsung and Verizon did not say where the test took place, AT&T Stadium in nearby Arlington, Texas hosted an ISAC demo for drone sensing by AT&T and Ericsson in between World Cup games.

To date ISAC has been touted as a flagship capability for future 6G networks that turns mobile infrastructure into a radar-like sensory platform, but real-life demos have started to take-off.

The trial enabled Samsung and Verizon to validate ISAC technology in a live, real-world environment with changing crowd conditions, to streamline gate operations, reduce concession line wait times, and proactively address overcrowding risks. 

Yago Tenorio, CTO and SVP of Technology Development at Verizon, stated the successful trial demonstrated the operator’s early investments in vRAN “are paying off today, giving us the agility to engineer and trial groundbreaking 6G concepts like ISAC over our existing infrastructure”.

“This field trial with Samsung proves that the network of the future will do far more than just transfer data.” he said. “It will actively perceive and interact with its environment to transform venue management and public safety.”

How it works
To capture data, a CBRS radio unit utilising 40 MHz of spectrum was mounted on a Verizon Cell-On-Wheels (COW) to act as a sensing receiver, tracking wireless channel variations caused by commercial 5G devices.

Samsung integrated its commercial AI-powered vRAN and vCore software with an ISAC application on its Network in a Server (NIS) platform, which is an edge-AI system that consolidates compute and network operations into a single server.

The NIS platform processed signal variations in real time to generate a dynamic crowd-density heatmap which measures spatial density only, without identifying individual users or objects. Vendors and operators are aware there are some privacy concerns related to ISAC ahead of it becoming a key element for the upcoming 6G standards.

The real-time spatial awareness serves multiple groups during large-scale gatherings. Event organisers gain visibility into crowd distribution to manage bottlenecks and deploy staff efficiently, while security agencies can spot emerging congestion early to prevent public safety hazards.

Additionally, venue attendees can use live crowd data to identify less congested concession stands, restrooms and exits.

Charlie Zhang, EVP at Samsung Research America, said the trial represents a major step forward in weaving AI-driven sensing into network infrastructure, underscoring the transformative promise of 6G technologies.

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Space42 and Viasat outlined an investment of $1 billion in shared infrastructure platform Equatys, as the pair signed a binding agreement to establish the joint venture.

The funding commitment was announced alongside the signing of a formal deal to form Equatys at the World Space Business Week event, being held this week in Paris.

It represents the next phase in the process to set-up the company after the duo detailed plans in September 2025.

Formation of the venture, constellation procurement and definitive agreements remain subject to closing conditions including regulatory approvals and the appointment of Viasat as the prime technology contractor.

Equatys is pitched as a shared space and ground infrastructure platform which will support the extension of mobile coverage and overlay in places terrestrial networks cannot serve.

Funding is expected to come from a combination of equity from the founders and third-parties, along with debt financing sources.

The company is expected to operate a tower company model, providing what the companies describe as a “neutral, shared layer of both satellites and ground infrastructure”, reducing capital requirements for potential customers while accelerating deployment and increasing serve ability.

Space42 MD Karim Michel Sabbagh said signing the agreement signifies take-off for Equatys.

“For the first time, the satellite industry is building infrastructure the way the mobile industry thinks: shared, interoperable, standards-based and designed for billions of devices rather than millions of subscribers.”

Viasat chair and CEO Mark Dankberg added it is creating a new infrastructure category for global direct-to-device and advanced mobile satellite service connectivity, backed by unique spectrum assets, significant committed capital and a business model proven to scale the mobile industry.

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The European Commission (EC) handed contracts to Thales Alenia Space and Aerospacelab for the buildout of the IRIS2 constellation, as EC president Ursula von der Leyen (pictured) set out the bloc’s priorities for the space sector.

Starting with Aerospacelab, the company stated it was selected as a key prime contractor for the low Earth orbit (LEO) segment of the IRIS2 programme, entrusted with building 264 satellite platforms in a deal worth €2.4 billion.

Benoit Deper, CEO of Aerospacelab, said its selection for IRIS2 “reflects a deliberate industrial choice and a defining moment for Europe as a whole”.

“Institutions are now also placing their trust in a new generation of space manufacturers: companies like Aerospacelab, built from the ground up to deliver satellite infrastructure at scale and speed,” he added.

Meanwhile, Thales Alenia Space, a joint venture owned by Thales and Leonardo, stated it had agreed a deal with Eutelsat to provide governmental payloads dedicated to 330 IRIS2 telecoms satellites in LEO.

The value of the deal is worth around €500 million, while the company expects to gain around €3 billion from the project overall.

Around 66 LEO Ka-only telecoms satellites will be launched in 2029, with Thales Alenia Space developing the payloads and Airbus Defense and Space providing the platforms.

It will also be responsible for the government payloads for a further 264 Ku/Ka telecoms satellites, scheduled to launch from 2030.

Competitive space sector
Speaking at the International Space Summit in Paris, von der Leyen said the IRIS2 programme would ensure resilient communications across Europe, strengthen digital sovereignty and reduce reliance on non-European satellite systems.

During a speech, she also set out a commitment to strengthen Europe’s access to space through greater private investment, while expressing the importance of a “strong and competitive space sector that can grow, scale up and compete globally”.

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Eutelsat and French satellite startup Skynopy officially launched what the pair claim is one of the largest software-defined ground infrastructures for current and future satellite offerings, covering in-orbit, orbital data centres and telecoms services.

Announced at the International Space Summit being held this week in Paris, the joint offering is called Global AKAR and brings together Eutelsat’s global footprint with Skynopy’s software technology and “commercial traction.”

The duo explained the ambition of the project is to utilise Eutelsat’s ground network of base stations to create a data backbone for multi-mission constellations in the S, X and Ka-bands.

The partnership aims to deploy 100 operational antennas by the end of 2029, enabling “a real-time service” at a very high throughput for the fast growing Low Earth Orbit (LEO) services market.

Global AKAR is designed to significantly reduce data latency to less than three minutes compared to the current state of the art standard of one hour, while delivering 10Gb/s throughput.

Partially supported by the French government, the project is now underway after successfully demonstrating the technical feasibility through a three-antenna proof of concept for Earth Observation.

The same infrastructure is designed to support a new generation of in-orbit services, enabling satellites to transfer data more efficiency and interact with in-orbit computing capabilities.

Customers are in line to benefit from access to a secure, high-capacity and globally distributed network without having to build out and operate their own ground infrastructures, said the partners. They further pointed to secure architecture and interfaces, making Global AKAR suitable for defence and other sensitive applications.

Emmanuel Macron, President of France, hailed Global AKAR as an alliance of a European champion in Eutelsat and one of France’s promising startups in Skynopy, “working hand in hand to offer the best service on the missing element of the space economy: the ground segment”.

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A report by Dell’Oro Group found worldwide data centre IT semiconductor and component revenue for servers and storage systems surged 182% in Q2 2026, driven by rising memory prices and continued AI infrastructure investment.

DRAM and storage drive revenue grew at a triple-digit pace, as average selling prices per bit more than doubled year-over-year while continued AI infrastructure investment fuelled broad-based demand across accelerators and complementary server and storage components.

“Data centre component growth accelerated sharply in the second quarter, driven by higher memory and storage prices and continued growth in server demand,” stated Baron Fung, VP of research at Dell’Oro.

He also said Nvidia’s Blackwell platform and custom accelerators from Google and Amazon continued to gain momentum.

Fung added agentic AI is emerging as a meaningful growth driver for general-purpose servers, broadening component demand beyond accelerated computing hardware.

Going forward, Fung stated Dell’Oro expects component revenue growth to maintain momentum through the remainder of 2026, supported by elevated component prices and strong AI infrastructure investment, though supply constraints could limit hyperscaler capital expenditure plans.

The report found accelerated server deployments drove strong demand for complementary components, including high-bandwidth memory (HBM), CPUs, memory and high-speed back-end network interface cards.

General-purpose server demand remained strong across cloud service providers, supported by continued infrastructure expansion alongside emerging agentic AI workloads.

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AT&T Business and Amazon Leo reached a deal to bring satellite broadband to enterprise and public sector customers, with the company becoming the first major US operator to employ the low Earth orbit (LEO) network in a bundled set-up including fibre and 5G.

The operator plans to offer the connectivity as a fully managed service on top of its existing terrestrial networks. Customers would get one bill, one point of contact and round-the-clock customer service.

AT&T is to provide the equipment to connect to the satellites.

Shawn Hakl, AT&T Business SVP and head of product, said enterprise and public sector customers need a platform which delivers reliable connectivity across fibre, 5G and satellite in a single managed architecture.

Chris Weber, VP of Amazon Leo Business and Product, said the satellite network adds resilience to the network.

AT&T stated the companies are “moving through a structured, phased deployment designed to ensure business-grade reliability before broad availability”.

It plans to issue pricing and configuration details in the coming months.

The explosion of a Blue Origin New Glenn rocket in May could put the timeline for the launch of the AT&T Business closer to 2027: the rocket company is repairing damage to a launchpad and aims to restore operations by the end of the year.

Amazon Leo is simultaneously pushing into direct-to-device (D2D) connectivity, seeking regulatory approval to deploy up to 5,105 satellites, with deployment scheduled to begin in 2028.

All three major US operators are involved in various D2D moves through deals with Amazon Leo, SpaceX and AST SpaceMobile, along with collaborating to close coverage gaps.

AT&T Business is bidding to differentiate by bundling the connectivity option.

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The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will vote later this month on two items intended to free up spectrum for next-generation connectivity, according to chair Brendan Carr (pictured).

The first is a satellite spectrum abundance order, which would allow the FCC to unlock more than 1,000 MHz of spectrum across the 12GHz and 42GHz bands. The FCC stated the freed-up airwaves could support a range of connectivity services, including faster satellite broadband.

The second item is a proposal to seek comment on modernising the FCC’s rules governing ultra-wideband (UWB) technology, an unlicensed spectrum category used across IoT, automotive and consumer devices. Carr noted the rules have not been comprehensively updated since their adoption in 2002.

“The FCC’s work to free up more spectrum continues apace this month,” Carr said. “Today, I shared two items with my colleagues that will push more commercial spectrum into the marketplace than ever before. By unlocking these bands, the FCC will give a big boost to American innovation and promote economic growth across a wide range of industries.”

On the satellite order, Carr said the move is designed to ensure consumers continue benefiting from competitive, high-speed internet delivered from next-generation satellite systems.

On the UWB proposal, he said the rule changes would unlock further opportunities for unlicensed devices across a wide swath of spectrum, pointing to UWB’s role in applications from vehicle safety systems to package tracking.

He stated the technology is so deeply embedded in everyday life that most people are unaware of its role, and that the proposal represents the FCC’s first comprehensive modernisation of the rules in over two decades.

Both items are scheduled for a vote at the FCC’s 30 September open meeting. The satellite spectrum move comes as regulators globally weigh how to balance growing demand for satellite broadband capacity, driven by operators including Amazon Leo, SpaceX’s Starlink and others, against existing terrestrial and federal spectrum users. The 12GHz band in particular has been the subject of a long-running dispute between satellite operators and terrestrial 5G proponents over interference risks and competing use cases.

The meeting items build on Carr’s broader push to release more spectrum since taking the chair, which has included restarting the agency’s first spectrum auction in four years. Auction 113, covering AWS-3 licences in the 1695-1710MHz, 1755-1780MHz and 2155-2180MHz bands, forms part of the FCC’s Build America Agenda, targeting 800MHz of new spectrum by 2034.

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Liberty Global agreed to sell towers owned by VodafoneZiggo to an entity owned by funds managed by a trio of companies in a €670 million deal, while revealing more asset sales are on the way.

The transaction, struck with infrastructure specialists DigitalBridge, TD Greystone Infrastructure and L&G, values the Dutch tower assets at 16.2x of their 2025 EBITDA.

Liberty Global has moved quickly since sealing its acquisition to take majority control of VodafoneZiggo early last month, which consequently led to the creation of Ziggo Group.

The holding entity holds Liberty Global’s interests in VodafoneZiggo and Telenet.

Through the tower sale, Liberty Global stated it will use the proceeds to retire debt across Ziggo Group, before adding further sales processes are underway.

It is looking to raise €1.2 billion to €1.4 billion from non-core asset disposals to support its intended listing of Ziggo Group in Amsterdam in the middle of 2027.

Mike Fries, chairman and CEO of Liberty Global, said the sale represents an important step towards the listing, as well as creating a platform for long-term value for shareholders and investors “who want to own part of this regional telecoms powerhouse.”.

The tower sale is subject to regulatory approval.

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Connectivity infrastructure-as-a-service provider Freshwave continued to make big progress with urban small cell deployments, adding the UK city of Canterbury to its list through an ongoing tie-up with VMO2.

A quartet of 4G- and 5G-compatible small cells are involved, offering a boost to VMO2 mobile users in busy areas of the city centre.

Freshwave emphasised the discreet qualities of the equipment, a boon in terms of minimising the aesthetic impact in the historic city.

The deployment is being conducted in close collaboration with Kent County Council, the local authority in which Canterbury sits.

David Wimble, cabinet member for Economic Development and Special projects at the council, explained the authority is helping the deployment by providing access to “suitable council assets” as it seeks to provide the reliable connectivity it regards as “an essential part of modern life”.

The arrangement is one of more than 40 Freshwave has agreed with local authorities throughout the UK.

A previous small cell deployment for VMO2 covers the town of Guildford and Freshwave is a key player in a large-scale rollout in the city of Glasgow.

Mobile network operator account director Neil Barnes said such collaborations are “key to delivering mobile connectivity” and Freshwave’s approach shows “how local authorities and industry can work together to improve coverage” in areas with the greatest need.

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Europe’s biggest mobile operators reportedly entered discussions to create a consortium that will bid on spectrum suitable for satellite services, with the view of launching joint direct-to-device (D2D) services in the continent.

Bloomberg reported Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Vodafone and Telefonica are looking to combine to secure airwaves that the European Union (EU) has earmarked for a European company, as part of a plan to bolster sovereignty and raise competition with Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which dominates the global D2D sector with Starlink.

The EU has indicated it will set rules around the distribution of 2GHz spectrum, reserving a third of the allocation for local companies, a plan which has drawn fire from SpaceX.

As per the EU’s proposal, a satellite operator securing a bulk of the spectrum will have to be majority controlled by a European business, Bloomberg noted.

Vodafone is already notably involved in a satellite joint venture with US-based AST SpaceMobile, designed to offer D2D services. Bloomberg stated the 50-50 ownership of the company would need to be adjusted for Vodafone to be in the running to secure the spectrum.

Current licences for the spectrum are due to expire in 2027.

The EU also plans to reserve a third of the spectrum for the IRIS2 European satellite network, a project led by the European Commission and European Space Agency.

The constellation is being built by a consortium consisting of Hispasat, SES and Eutelsat, offering mainly broadband services with limited D2D capabilities.

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Trade body the Next Generation Mobile Networks Alliance (NGMN) outlined a need for significant moves across several areas including standards and security ahead of widespread use of agentic AI for automated networks.  

The group backs the technology as a likely key enabler for Level 4 autonomous networks as defined by the TM Forum, but highlighted work was still required in architecture, operations, governance and other supporting areas.

In a newly-released report detailing the opportunities and areas to address, the NGMN explained operators need “robust mechanisms for governance, trust, policy adherence, observability, explainability, operational safety, determinism, assurance, security and cost control”.

Real-world
Mobile operator technical teams were cautiously optimistic about the NGMN’s findings.

Orange CTO and NGMN chair Laurent Leboucher said operators are at a “decisive inflection point as the telecoms industry enters a new phase of network automation”.

“The rapid arrival of agentic AI has introduced the prospect of autonomous systems able to reason, plan, collaborate and execute actions within and across multiple operational domains”.

He noted network complexity and high customer experience demands mean “general-purpose agentic AI technologies must be used carefully”, highlighting a need for safeguards and the ability to “bring humans in the loop when needed”.

“This is a learning process in itself, where operators will have to take controlled risks.”

Fellow NGMN board member and China Mobile chief expert Guangyi Liu noted reviews from standards development organisations, industry initiatives and open-source activities showed “encouraging momentum” for agentic AI use, but “despite this, the landscape remains largely complex and unevenly mature”.

He endorsed increased collaboration across a wide range of organisations to “achieve confidence in the opportunity of large-scale deployments and provide a more unified end-to-end perspective”.

Vodafone Group head of R&D Luke Ibbetson, also on the NGMN’s board, agreed about the need for protections and trust being in place before agentic AI could be fully employed by the telecoms sector.

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Intel proposed a massive $15 billion underwritten public offering of common stock to bolster its balance sheet and aggressively fund its expansion in the high-stakes AI and semiconductor markets.

Financial underwriters include J.P. Morgan Securities, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Citigroup Global Markets. Intel stated the companies would have the option for 30-days to purchase up to an additional $2.3 billion in shares, a strategy to secure long-term competitiveness.

“Progress in emerging areas including physical AI, purpose-built silicon, advanced packaging and external wafers represent significant growth opportunities for Intel,” the company stated.

The additional capital targets soaring global demand for technology, as customer investments in AI compute power and physical iterations continue to grow rapidly.

Intel stated net proceeds would cover “general corporate purposes” including working capital and capital expenditures. The company expects the offering to help preserve its investment-grade credit rating during heavy infrastructure investment.

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Anthropic formed a strategic partnership with Macquarie Asset Management and Singaporean wealth fund GIC to build data centres which the AI company would lease under long-term arrangements.

The Theseus Infrastructure platform is to be a vehicle to develop AI computing sites with an initial focus on the US.

Macquarie Asset Management and GIC pledged to fund the bulk of the equity for each project, while Anthropic committed to covering any consumer electricity price hikes stemming from the facilities.

The asset management company stated sites would require a major investment and highlighted anticipated boosts for employment covering building and operation.

GIC is a repeat Anthropic investor.

It jointly led a $30 billion funding round in February and backed a $1.5 billion enterprise services venture Anthropic launched in May.

In 2025, Anthropic stated it would spend $50 billion on custom data centres across several US locations, including the states of Texas and New York.

The company is also preparing for a public listing.

Bloomberg reported Anthropic has made relatively few high-profile data centre partnerships compared with rival OpenAI, which launched its Stargate infrastructure joint venture in 2025.

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NTT Docomo and Samsung Electronics validated AI-RAN technology which optimises user experience at an individual level to cut service issues, a feat the pair asserted is an important step towards predictive architecture expected to be prevalent in 6G.

The companies explained the technology tested in a trial earlier this year in Japan uses AI to analyse a user’s movement patterns and behaviour to predict potential service degradation before it happens.

Rather than applying the same network configuration to every device connected to a base station, the technology tested is meant to tailor each user’s experience depending on real-time network conditions and their expected actions.

The companies noted the traditional approach led to connectivity drops in areas of weak signal and other degradation issues, stating increased demand for high bandwidth services meant users increasingly required greater stability.

Validation tests for the AI-RAN optimisation technology reduced the frequency of data rate degradation from 13% to 7%.

The companies expect the technology to “usher in an era where networks autonomously recognise user contexts and service requirements, delivering optimal communication environments”, stating it is an important step towards predictive network operations.

They added this is needed as “AI-driven network optimisation becomes increasingly prevalent in the 6G network”.

JinGuk Jeong, EVP and head of the Advanced Communications Research Centre at Samsung Electronics, said “by shifting our research focus from overall cell performance to AI-driven individual user considerations, we have demonstrated the potential for enhanced perceived quality at the user level”.

The executive added through further collaboration with its partner, it would “continue securing core technologies for future communications centred around users”.

Samsung and NTT added they also developed a related data collection process to minimise the network burden during optimisation.

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