Key Highlights (22–23 September 2025)
- 6G Alliance Launched: Verizon unveiled a 6G Innovation Forum with industry giants (Ericsson, Nokia, Samsung, Qualcomm, Meta) to collaboratively shape next-gen wireless, calling 5G-Advanced the foundation for future 6G use cases telecomstechnews.com telecomstechnews.com.
- Major 5G Network Deal: Vodafone–Three UK (merging operators) announced a £2 billion ($2.7 billion) network overhaul contract with Nokia and Ericsson, upgrading 17,000 sites and phasing out Huawei/Samsung gear to expand 5G coverage lightreading.com lightreading.com.
- Operator Shake-Up: T-Mobile US named COO Srini Gopalan as its next CEO (effective Nov 1), with Mike Sievert stepping down after 5+ years; Sievert praised Gopalan’s “Un-carrier mindset” to drive the company’s next chapter t-mobile.com t-mobile.com.
- Outage Triggers Investigations: Australia’s #2 carrier Optus suffered a 13-hour outage disrupting emergency calls – linked to multiple deaths – prompting government fury, an ACMA probe, and warnings of severe penalties for the company telecomstechnews.com telecomstechnews.com.
- Surging Mobile Messaging: Communications platform Infobip reported it has sent 10 billion RCS messages, with RCS traffic up 500% YoY (North America +1400% post-iOS support) telecomstechnews.com telecomstechnews.com. Experts say RCS’s rich features are boosting customer engagement, doubling survey response rates over SMS telecomstechnews.com telecomstechnews.com.
- 5G Rollouts & Expansion: India’s state-run BSNL will launch 5G in Delhi/Mumbai by Dec 2025 using indigenous 4G/5G gear now testing successfully rcrwireless.com rcrwireless.com. Virgin Media O2 UK reached 500 towns with 5G SA (standalone) and Deutsche Bahn partnered with Nokia on Europe’s first 1900 MHz 5G rail network (enhancing train connectivity).
- Security & Spam: Telcos faced ongoing cyber threats – U.S. carriers (incl. T-Mobile) disclosed attempted hacks by Chinese groups but claimed no customer data breach reuters.com. In Africa, Airtel’s AI spam filter blocked 205 million spam SMS in 6 months across 13 countries, protecting subscribers by auto-flagging fraudulent texts extensia.tech extensia.tech.
- Policy Moves: Regulators acted on consumer protection – Australia vowed “no excuse” penalties after the Optus outage telecomstechnews.com. In India, the telecom ministry issued draft rules on mergers, license transfers, and SIM user verification as part of broader industry reforms dot.gov.in.
6G Alliances and Next-Gen Mobile Tech
Verizon has pulled back the curtain on 6G, convening what some dub the telecom “Avengers” – a new 6G Innovation Forum uniting top network vendors and tech firms telecomstechnews.com. The alliance includes Ericsson, Nokia, Samsung (network gear), alongside Qualcomm (chips) and even Meta telecomstechnews.com. Their mission: collaboratively define 6G’s capabilities and killer apps early, rather than let it become a chaotic free-for-all. “We were the first in the world to turn up 5G… 5G Advanced lays the foundation for the 6G future,” said Verizon’s networks chief Joe Russo, noting today’s work on enhanced 5G is paving the way for wearables, AI experiences and use cases “we haven’t even thought of yet” telecomstechnews.com. Verizon is already setting up 6G labs (starting in Los Angeles) as sandboxes to develop and test nascent tech in real-world conditions telecomstechnews.com. Samsung Research SVP Charlie Zhang echoed the excitement, saying Verizon and Samsung aim to “revolutionise the future of wireless… in the 6G era” by building on their joint virtual RAN innovations telecomstechnews.com. The overarching goal: a network so fast and intelligent it can power ubiquitous real-time AI, from smart cities to instant massive data processing telecomstechnews.com.
Industry experts caution that getting to that 6G future will require enormous effort. Juan Montojo-Bennassar, Qualcomm’s VP for standards, gave a rare glimpse into the human grind behind next-gen standards. Constant global travel and marathon meetings are the norm for 6G development – a sacrifice he sums up plainly: “Innovation doesn’t come for free.” rcrwireless.com Reaching consensus in 3GPP (the mobile standards body) involves as much politics and persuasion as engineering prowess. As Montojo-Bennassar notes, engineers must build credibility over years to influence technical decisions in packed conference rooms, and even then “it does take some courage to go to the mic in front of everybody… and just say what you care about.” rcrwireless.com Despite the behind-the-scenes toil, Qualcomm and peers are pressing forward with foundational R&D so that by the time 6G standards crystallize (around 2030), the groundwork for truly transformative networks – supporting things like AI-driven connectivity and holographic communications – will be in place.
Meanwhile, current-generation mobile tech continues to evolve. The GSMA’s new eSIM standard (SGP.32), finalized this month, is being hailed as a “revolution” for global IoT connectivity rcrwireless.com. This standard enables zero-touch, remote provisioning of SIM profiles on IoT devices, solving long-standing challenges with roaming and local compliance. Industry stakeholders like KORE Wireless praise SGP.32’s flexibility and see it finally delivering on eSIM’s promise: “build-once, ship-anywhere” devices that can automatically activate with local carriers out of the box rcrwireless.com rcrwireless.com. The new spec introduces a dedicated IoT Remote Manager and Profile Assistant for secure downloads and updates, along with mandated cryptographic authentication for provisioning rcrwireless.com. Executives from carriers KPN and Telenor Connexion – early adopters – say SGP.32 “will revolutionise eSIM connectivity for IoT” and marks a “significant shift” that simplifies global deployments while meeting local regulations rcrwireless.com. Even Vodafone has reorganized its IoT business in anticipation of widespread eSIM/SGP.32 adoption, noting that new eSIM and integrated iSIM tech “changes the dynamics” of how IoT services are delivered worldwide rcrwireless.com. In short, the telecom industry is laying critical groundwork – from 6G brainstorming to eSIM standards – to ensure the next wave of mobile internet is more powerful and seamless than ever.
5G Network Rollouts, Upgrades and Deals
Even as 6G steals some headlines, 5G deployment marches on globally. In Europe, a blockbuster network deal underscored the accelerating 5G upgrade cycle. After regulators approved the merger of Vodafone UK and Three UK, the combined operator (temporarily dubbed VodafoneThree) moved swiftly to modernize its infrastructure. It awarded Nokia and Ericsson a £2 billion (US$2.7 billion) contract to overhaul roughly 17,000 mobile sites with 5G equipment, replacing legacy Huawei and Samsung gear in the process lightreading.com lightreading.com. This eight-year project – among the largest 5G builds in the UK – marks a dramatic comeback for Nokia, which had previously been sidelined in Vodafone’s network. Nokia will supply about 7,000 sites worth of 5G RAN (radio access network) kit, while Ericsson takes ~10,000 sites; the two will help consolidate the existing grid of 33,000 towers down to about 26,000 more efficient sites post-merger lightreading.com lightreading.com. Notably, Nokia is reclaiming ground by swapping Huawei out of roughly 3,700 sites and Samsung out of up to 1,000 Three sites lightreading.com lightreading.com. The UK government’s ban on high-risk vendors (Huawei) made this overhaul mandatory by 2027, but VodafoneThree seized the moment to also trim duplicate sites and embrace Open RAN-ready solutions. Telecom analysts call it a “massive show of support” for Nokia, which had struggled in past years but now proved its latest 5G gear competitive enough to win Vodafone’s favor lightreading.com lightreading.com. For Europe’s networks, this is a significant development – by 2027, Huawei’s 5G presence will be eradicated in UK networks, and home-grown or allied vendors will fill the gap lightreading.com. The deal also secures Ericsson’s position, though at a slightly reduced share of Vodafone’s network than before. Investors welcomed the clarity; a 7,000-site gain for Nokia is expected to boost its financials after a tough period in the RAN market lightreading.com lightreading.com.
Elsewhere, national 5G rollouts hit new milestones. In India, state-run carrier Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) – notably the only major Indian telco without 5G yet – announced it will launch 5G service in Delhi and Mumbai by December 2025 rcrwireless.com. BSNL had faced long delays as the government pushed it to use indigenously developed 4G/5G technology instead of buying from foreign vendors rcrwireless.com. That effort is finally bearing fruit: BSNL’s homegrown 4G/5G network gear has performed well in testing, clearing the way for commercial 5G in the two biggest metros by year-end rcrwireless.com. “All the equipment is working fine… we estimate the commercial launch… by December 2025,” an Indian DoT official confirmed rcrwireless.com. Backed by a recent government capital injection, BSNL has already deployed 95,000 4G towers (all 5G-ready) across India rcrwireless.com and is adding 100,000 more 4G sites as it upgrades to 5G rcrwireless.com. This will belatedly bring BSNL up to speed, as rivals Jio, Airtel, and Vi have largely completed nationwide 5G coverage rcrwireless.com. The move also highlights India’s strategy of technological self-reliance in telecom – a bold bet to build core network components domestically, which, despite initial setbacks, could pay off in the form of more secure and controllable infrastructure.
In other regions, 5G expansion continues: Virgin Media O2 (UK) revealed it has extended 5G Standalone (next-generation 5G core) to 500 towns and cities rcrwireless.com, offering improved speeds and low latency services. Deutsche Bahn in Germany, partnering with Nokia, deployed the world’s first 1900 MHz 5G rail network to enhance train connectivity and safety systems (a dedicated spectrum for railway 5G). And in the US, Verizon isn’t only eyeing 6G; it’s also busy with 5G applications – this week Verizon lit up advanced Wi-Fi 6 and 5G coverage in St. Louis’s hockey arena and outfitted Tampa police with 5G-connected technologies rcrwireless.com, showcasing how carriers are leveraging 5G for both fan experience and public safety.
Carrier Business & Leadership Updates
It was a momentous week for C-suite news in the mobile world. T-Mobile US, the country’s second-largest carrier, announced a major leadership transition that caught industry attention. On Sept 22, T-Mobile said that CEO Mike Sievert will step down on November 1, and the company’s current COO, Srini Gopalan, will take the helm as CEO t-mobile.com. The change comes as part of a long-term succession plan from T-Mobile’s board. Sievert – who led T-Mobile through the Sprint merger and an era of record growth – will stay on as Executive Vice Chairman to advise on strategy, but is ceding day-to-day control. “I couldn’t be more excited to announce Srini Gopalan as our next CEO,” Sievert said, praising Gopalan’s “skills, experience and Un-carrier mindset to lead our company into the future.” t-mobile.com Gopalan joined T-Mobile from Deutsche Telekom in 2023 and has been orchestrating operations as COO; he stated he’s “honored and grateful…for the opportunity to lead T-Mobile’s next chapter”, lauding Sievert’s tenure in which T-Mobile became “the world’s most successful telecom” by many metrics t-mobile.com. The leadership hand-off – keeping Sievert as an advisor – reassured investors that T-Mobile’s strategic course (focusing on customer experience, 5G network supremacy, and industry disruption) will continue smoothly. At the same time, new CEO Gopalan faces pressure to fend off growing competition from AT&T and Verizon while exploring new growth areas (such as broadband and enterprise services) finance.yahoo.com. This CEO shuffle at T-Mobile reflects a broader changing of the guard in telecom: many incumbents are looking for fresh leadership to navigate the next phase of 5G monetization and upcoming 6G investments.
In the Asia-Pacific, carrier financial moves also made news. Singapore’s Singtel (parent of Optus) saw its shares dip after the Optus outage (more on that in the next section), while in Malaysia, Axiata Group’s edotco unit reportedly explored tower asset sales to reduce debt (part of a regional towerco consolidation trend). Africa’s MTN Group announced plans for a fintech spinoff IPO, leveraging its mobile money success. And Latin America’s América Móvil (Claro) highlighted surging mobile data revenues in a mid-quarter update, crediting expanded 4G/5G coverage in markets like Brazil and Mexico.
One notable trend in carrier strategy is the rise of rich messaging and digital services as growth drivers. Infobip, a cloud communications provider used by many mobile operators and enterprises worldwide, revealed a major milestone in messaging. The company surpassed 10 billion RCS (Rich Communication Services) messages sent via its platform telecomstechnews.com, signaling that RCS – often dubbed “SMS 2.0” – is finally gaining global traction. RCS, which upgrades text messaging with app-like features (read receipts, high-quality media, encryption, etc.), saw an explosion in usage over the past year. North American RCS traffic on Infobip’s network jumped 1,400% after Apple’s iPhones added RCS support in late 2024 (with iOS 18) telecomstechnews.com. Overall business messaging through RCS is up 500% year-on-year as brands adopt it for more engaging customer interactions telecomstechnews.com. For example, Britain’s higher-ed survey agency HESA (via Jisc) used RCS to contact recent graduates and saw double the response rate compared to SMS telecomstechnews.com. “RCS enables us to provide rich, engaging and trusted messages… which helped encourage them to complete the survey,” said Dr. Gosia Turner of Jisc, noting significantly improved completion rates telecomstechnews.com. Infobip’s RCS director Craig Selby confirmed “record adoption as RCS becomes the channel of choice for businesses aiming to offer trusted, personalised messaging.” telecomstechnews.com With Apple now on board (albeit still working on end-to-end encryption for RCS on iPhone telecomstechnews.com), RCS is finally a true cross-platform standard – supported on Android and iOS – and operators are keen to capitalize on this richer medium to compete with OTT apps. This week’s numbers from Infobip suggest RCS is graduating from pilot stage to mainstream use, giving operators and companies a new tool to engage customers with chatbot-like conversations, verified identities, and interactive content all within the native messaging app.
Network Security, Outages and Resilience
Telecom networks’ reliability and security were in the spotlight – for both unfortunate and encouraging reasons – during this news cycle. In Australia, a catastrophic outage at Optus (the country’s #2 mobile operator) sparked national outrage and a government inquiry. Early on Thursday (Sept 18), Optus attempted a routine network firewall upgrade that went horribly wrong, knocking out mobile and internet service for 13 hours across large parts of the country telecomstechnews.com telecomstechnews.com. Most alarmingly, the outage prevented over 600 emergency 000 calls from connecting, and authorities have linked the disruption to at least three deaths so far (police are probing a possible fourth) telecomstechnews.com. During the blackout, some Australians could not reach ambulances or police – a tragic consequence for which Optus has been widely condemned. Even more galling to officials: Optus failed to publicly acknowledge the problem for 40 hours and did not notify regulators until after services were restored, flouting standard outage reporting rules telecomstechnews.com. By the time Optus CEO Stephen Rue finally faced the press, the damage – both human and reputational – was done. Rue disclosed the culprit was a “technical fault linked to a firewall upgrade” and admitted the company was unaware of the massive outage for 13 hours due to internal monitoring failures telecomstechnews.com. “That is clearly not good enough… I want to reiterate how sorry I am about the very sad loss of the lives of four people who could not reach emergency services,” Rue said, apologizing and vowing to take actions to prevent a repeat telecomstechnews.com.
The government and regulators responded with fury. The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) opened an investigation, stating “Australians must be able to contact emergency services whenever they need help. This is the most fundamental responsibility every telco provider has to the public.” telecomstechnews.com Communications Minister Michelle Rowland blasted Optus’s handling as an “enormous failure on the Australian people”, saying there is “no excuse” for a 000 outage. She and other officials signaled that serious penalties are coming telecomstechnews.com. Even Prime Minister Anthony Albanese weighed in, suggesting that CEO Rue “should consider his position” (effectively hinting at resignation) telecomstechnews.com. The episode has provoked scrutiny not just of Optus’s technical resilience, but also its crisis response and transparency. It’s not the first time Optus faces such heat: in 2023 a similar emergency-call outage led to a A$12 million fine telecomstechnews.com, and in 2022 Optus suffered a massive cyberattack exposing 9.8 million customers’ data telecomstechnews.com – an incident that led to the ouster of the previous CEO. Now, having barely two years passed, Optus’s brand is again tarnished; parent company Singtel saw its stock tumble ~2.3% on the news telecomstechnews.com. Australian authorities are discussing stricter obligations for telcos to ensure emergency-call access (like roaming to rival networks during outages) and faster public alerts when disruptions occur. Optus has pledged full cooperation as daily updates emerge, but tough questions remain on why its safeguards failed so spectacularly and whether lives could have been saved with a quicker response telecomstechnews.com. This outage will likely prompt industry-wide introspection on network redundancy for critical services.
On a more positive note, other telcos took steps to protect consumers from scams and spam. Across Africa, Airtel Africa rolled out an AI-based spam blocking system that’s already yielding results. The carrier revealed its “Spam Alert” service has intercepted over 205 million spam SMS in the last six months across 13 African markets extensia.tech. The free service uses artificial intelligence to auto-detect suspicious texts (like phishing attempts) and prefix them with a “SPAM Alert” warning in customers’ messaging inbox extensia.tech. Uniquely, Airtel’s solution works at the network level – subscribers don’t need to install any app or take action. “We are proud to pioneer an advanced tech solution powered by AI in tackling spam messages… This free service is yet another demonstration of our commitment to deliver an unmatched experience and safer network to our customers,” said Sunil Taldar, CEO of Airtel Africa extensia.tech. The move highlights how African operators are leveraging AI to boost security and trust, as mobile adoption surges. Spam and fraud via SMS are major issues in many countries; by filtering them proactively, Airtel hopes to prevent phishing scams and build subscriber confidence in using mobile services. Analysts say such carrier-led spam filtering could become a standard offering globally, akin to how email providers filter junk mail, especially as AI makes real-time detection more feasible.
Meanwhile, cybersecurity threats remain a constant undercurrent for mobile networks worldwide. This week brought further revelations about a long-running espionage campaign against telecom operators. U.S. wireless carriers including AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, Lumen and others confirmed that over the past year they were targeted by a sophisticated hacking operation dubbed “Salt Typhoon” (believed linked to Chinese state actors) reuters.com. According to government and media reports, these attackers managed to infiltrate telecom networks by exploiting router vulnerabilities and other holes, aiming to spy on communications. Notably, *T-Mobile disclosed it detected and blocked intrusions in recent months, saying the hackers were stopped “from advancing and protected sensitive customer information from being accessed.” reuters.com Verizon similarly stated it contained a related incident that had targeted a few high-profile customers reuters.com. While no new massive data breach was reported in September, the admission underscores that telecom networks are high-value targets for nation-state hackers, given the troves of data they carry. U.S. officials are pressing carriers to harden their systems (and patch equipment like routers and firewalls more rapidly) in light of these incursions. The good news is that, so far, companies say no customer data or critical services were disrupted by the attempted hacks reuters.com – a testament to improved detection and response. However, the ongoing threat led the White House to secretly brief telco CEOs last year, warning that Chinese hackers had the ability to potentially shut down infrastructure like networks or power grids via these accesses reuters.com. This week’s news is a reminder that cybersecurity in the GSM/telecom space is truly a front line of defense: carriers are effectively battling nation-backed attackers to keep our communications secure.
Finally, regulators weren’t idle: beyond the Optus case, India’s Department of Telecommunications (DoT) issued a flurry of draft regulations on September 22 aimed at overhauling telecom governance dot.gov.in. The drafts – open for public comment – include new “Telecom Restructuring & M&A Rules” to streamline approvals when operators merge or transfer licenses, updated User Identification Rules to bolster SIM registration and curb fraud, and Migration Rules to manage transitions to India’s forthcoming telecom law dot.gov.in. These are part of a broader telecom reform pushed by New Delhi to encourage consolidation and investment while protecting consumers (for instance, ensuring every mobile user has verified ID to reduce spam/SMS fraud). Industry watchers are analyzing the fine print, but the policy direction is clear: governments globally are tightening oversight of telecom operations – from network resilience to customer data – given how essential mobile connectivity has become to public safety and economic activity.
Sources: News releases and articles from Telecoms Tech News telecomstechnews.com telecomstechnews.com, RCR Wireless lightreading.com lightreading.com rcrwireless.com rcrwireless.com, T-Mobile Newsroom t-mobile.com t-mobile.com, Light Reading lightreading.com lightreading.com, Infobip/TelecomsTech telecomstechnews.com telecomstechnews.com, Telecoms Tech News telecomstechnews.com telecomstechnews.com, Extensia/iAfrica extensia.tech extensia.tech, Reuters reuters.com, and official government releases dot.gov.in.
