- Verizon axes perks & faces outage fury: Verizon started September by ending free Apple Arcade/Google Play perks and loyalty discounts on legacy plans, angering customers macrumors.com economictimes.indiatimes.com. Days earlier, a software glitch left millions of Verizon users in “SOS only” mode for hours, with 23,000+ outage reports nationwide cbsnews.com.
- T-Mobile’s “SuperMobile” leap: T-Mobile launched a “SuperMobile” enterprise plan bundling 5G network slicing, SpaceX Starlink satellite coverage, and beefed-up security to keep businesses connected “virtually anywhere” reuters.com. The first-of-its-kind plan targets industries from logistics to emergency services, as T-Mobile chases new growth beyond a saturated consumer market reuters.com.
- European 5G on fast-forward: Deutsche Telekom began offering 5G network slices to prioritize emergency services’ communications in Germany mobileworldlive.com. Turkey formally set October 16 for its 5G spectrum auction (11 blocks valued at $2.1 B), aiming for nationwide 5G service by April 2026 agbi.com. France’s space agency funded a €31 M project to integrate satellites into 5G networks, boosting non-terrestrial 5G coverage mobileworldlive.com.
- Asia’s big bets and blackouts: India’s Reliance Jio and Meta unveiled a ₹855 Cr (~$100 M) joint venture to deliver AI services using Meta’s Llama models, with Mukesh Ambani vowing to “democratise enterprise-grade AI” for businesses economictimes.indiatimes.com economictimes.indiatimes.com. Pakistan finally scheduled a 5G spectrum auction by December 2025 techjuice.pk even as it extended a 3G/4G internet shutdown in Balochistan through early September due to insurgent threats digitalrightsmonitor.pk.
- Middle East & Africa connect the unconnected: Iraq launched a state-owned 5G company in partnership with Vodafone to accelerate its next-gen mobile rollout agbi.com. Ethiopia’s Ethio Telecom, with Huawei, deployed solar-powered tower sites to expand green rural coverage telecomtv.com. And in South Africa, MTN kicked off a program to migrate 2G/3G users onto 4G by selling Android smartphones for just 99 rand (~$5), aiming to distribute 1.2 M devices by 2026 bez-kabli.pl.
North America: Perks Pulled, Outages and New 5G Frontiers
In the U.S., the month opened with both consumer frustrations and bold network initiatives. Verizon confirmed it is discontinuing long-standing perks and discounts on older unlimited plans – including free Apple Arcade/Google Play Pass trials and loyalty credits – effective September 1 macrumors.com economictimes.indiatimes.com. Customers received emails that these promotions, a key reason some stayed with Verizon, would be “removed no sooner than September 1, 2025,” prompting widespread dismay economictimes.indiatimes.com. Analysts warn the perk phase-out, coming on the heels of recent price hikes, could fuel higher customer churn bez-kabli.pl. On the flip side, smaller rivals seized the moment with aggressive offers: Ryan Reynolds-backed Mint Mobile rolled out a 50%-off deal (12 months of unlimited 5G for $15/mo, paid upfront) and bundled steep phone discounts to lure cost-conscious users switching from the big carriers bez-kabli.pl. Such promotions underscore the intense competition as carriers jostle for subscribers in a maturing market.
Labor Day weekend also saw a major Verizon outage underscore America’s reliance on always-on mobile internet. On Saturday Aug. 30, Verizon users from California to New York found their phones stuck in “SOS only” emergency mode for hours bez-kabli.pl. A software issue knocked out service nationwide, with outage reports spiking to nearly 23,000 by mid-afternoon cbsnews.com. Verizon apologized as engineers scrambled to deploy a fix; by ~9 PM ET service was “starting to see restoration” and fully recovered by midnight cbsnews.com. While no other U.S. carrier had a comparable Labor Day meltdown, the incident – Verizon’s third big outage of 2025 – spurred fresh questions about network resiliency bez-kabli.pl. It also highlighted coverage gaps, as some customers could only call 911 via other networks’ signals. Public safety officials noted that emergency communications remained intact, but the outage’s breadth fueled calls for improved redundancy.
Meanwhile, T-Mobile US grabbed headlines with a high-tech bid for enterprise customers. On Aug. 28, the carrier unveiled “SuperMobile,” a new mobile plan that bundles several cutting-edge capabilities into one service. The plan leverages 5G Standalone network slicing – carving out fast lanes in T-Mobile’s network – to ensure critical business data isn’t slowed even during peak traffic reuters.com. It also taps into T-Mobile’s partnership with SpaceX Starlink satellites to extend coverage to remote, off-grid areas beyond reach of cell towers reuters.com. Built-in encryption and malware protection are included as well. “We’re giving businesses the advanced tools they need to connect seamlessly, move faster and get more done virtually anywhere they are,” said Mo Katibeh, CMO of T-Mobile’s Business Group reuters.com. The move comes as T-Mobile seeks growth outside the saturated consumer segment, while rivals AT&T and Verizon pour billions into their own network upgrades reuters.com. SuperMobile – available starting Sept. 1 with a 30-day free trial for early adopters – is seen as a play to differentiate T-Mobile in the enterprise market and capitalize on its 5G leadership. Early business customers in fields like logistics and emergency response are testing the service, which uses a network of 650 satellites to fill coverage gaps reuters.com. Industry analysts call it a novel approach, noting that T-Mobile is bundling capabilities (like satellite-to-phone connectivity and priority slicing) that were previously sold separately, thereby addressing common pain points for companies with mobile workforces reuters.com reuters.com.
Europe: 5G Slicing, Strategic Sales, and Spectrum Moves
Europe’s mobile industry marked early September with advances in network tech and major policy steps. In Germany, Deutsche Telekom expanded its 5G capabilities by employing network slicing for public safety. The carrier announced it is offering prioritized 5G “slices” to emergency services, ensuring first responders’ communications stay fast and reliable even when networks are congested mobileworldlive.com. Partnering with Motorola Solutions, DT deployed this feature for emergency organizations in select regions, moving beyond prior consumer-oriented slicing trials. Executives touted the approach as a blueprint for how 5G can support critical national infrastructure – essentially carving out an always-on fast lane for police, fire and medical teams. This follows Deutsche Telekom’s other 5G Standalone innovations, as the company and its T-Systems unit also address rising European demands for data sovereignty and secure networks.
Also in Germany, Telefónica (O2) turned to artificial intelligence to improve network quality. The operator revealed a partnership with Tech Mahindra and Nvidia to develop a custom generative AI system for network operations mobileworldlive.com. The “Large Telco Model” AI will ingest vast network data to predict and even prevent outages or performance issues before customers notice. “The goal is to boost the reliability and efficiency of our services through data-driven decisions and highly automated processes,” explained Telefónica Germany’s network director Mircea Anghel, emphasizing that smarter self-healing networks will “elevate the customer experience to a new level.” mobileworldlive.com Nvidia’s telecom chief added that autonomous, AI-managed networks will be “critical for delivering uninterrupted customer experiences” in the 5G/6G era mobileworldlive.com. The AI system – based on Nvidia and Tech Mahindra’s large language model tuned for telecom – will monitor everything from sudden cell tower faults to traffic spikes, triggering preventive actions automatically mobileworldlive.com mobileworldlive.com. This initiative, one of Europe’s first at such scale, is being closely watched as a test case for AI in telecom operations.
In France, the focus turned skyward as a start-up named Univity secured €31 million in public funding to advance 5G beyond Earth’s limits. Announced on Sept. 1, the grant from France’s space agency CNES will support Univity’s work on an integrated 5G non-terrestrial network (NTN) system mobileworldlive.com. The project envisions using very-low-Earth-orbit satellites (“birds”) in conjunction with terrestrial 5G towers to fill coverage gaps. Univity will validate technology for seamless hand-off between satellites and ground networks, with an eye toward bringing high-speed mobile internet to remote regions (and potentially aircraft or ships) via 5G. The funding underscores Europe’s interest in space-based internet and competition with U.S. efforts like SpaceX’s direct-to-cell service. French officials noted the NTN project could eventually bolster emergency communications and IoT connectivity across Europe’s rural or hard-to-reach areas mobileworldlive.com.
Meanwhile, Europe saw significant M&A and regulatory movement in the telecom sector. In Ireland, BT Group completed the €22 million sale of its wholesale and enterprise division to Speed Fibre Group mobileworldlive.com. The Sept. 1 closure of this deal (initially announced in February) is part of BT’s ongoing streamlining, as it focuses on core UK operations and fibre rollout. The Irish unit’s new owners plan to invest in expanding fibre backhaul and 5G-ready infrastructure across Ireland mobileworldlive.com. Elsewhere, European regulators progressed on 5G spectrum plans. Turkey – which has lagged many countries in launching 5G – formally set October 16, 2025 as the date for its first 5G spectrum auction agbi.com. The government announced that 11 frequency packages in the 700 MHz and 3.5 GHz bands (totaling 400 MHz) will be up for tender at a minimum combined price of about $2.1 billion agbi.com. Winning bidders are expected to start 5G services by April 1, 2026, and Turkey’s existing operators are already preparing bids. In line with Ankara’s push for tech self-reliance, the telecom minister said new license conditions will require 60% locally-made network gear and 30% regionally-made products in 5G buildouts agbi.com. This is meant to “reduce dependence on foreign technology and encourage domestic production,” he noted agbi.com. The Turkish auction news, confirmed Sept. 1, provides a concrete timeline for 5G rollout in a country that until now only had 4.5G. It also comes amid other spectrum developments in Europe: regulators in several EU nations are gearing up for 6G research allocations and finalizing the shutdown of 3G networks to repurpose spectrum for 4G/5G. Notably, no major network outages were reported in Europe over this period, and operators in many countries quietly enjoyed steady service even as they prepared for upcoming spectrum shifts and infrastructure upgrades.
Asia-Pacific: 5G Ambitions, AI Alliances, and a Connectivity Crunch
Across Asia-Pacific, the start of September featured a mix of cutting-edge initiatives and ongoing connectivity challenges. In India, telecom giant Reliance Jio (part of Reliance Industries) made waves with a high-profile alliance in tech. At Reliance’s annual general meeting, Chairman Mukesh Ambani announced a joint venture with Meta (Facebook) to deliver enterprise AI solutions at scale. The two companies will invest roughly Rs 855 crore (about $97 million) in a 70:30 ratio economictimes.indiatimes.com economictimes.indiatimes.com to build a platform-as-a-service for AI, leveraging Meta’s open-source Llama 2 models. “We will democratise enterprise-grade AI for every Indian organisation – from ambitious SMBs to blue-chip corporates – enabling them to innovate faster, operate more efficiently, and compete confidently on the global stage,” Ambani declared economictimes.indiatimes.com. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg hailed the partnership (via video message) as “a key step towards ensuring everyone has access to AI, and eventually superintelligence.” The JV will develop sector-specific generative AI tools (for finance, customer service, etc.) that Indian businesses can plug into their operations economictimes.indiatimes.com economictimes.indiatimes.com. Coming alongside Reliance’s launch of a new AI subsidiary, this move underscores the convergence of telecom and tech in India’s digital economy. While not directly a network upgrade, it signals how operators like Jio aim to offer value-added services (cloud, AI) on top of their 5G networks to drive growth.
India’s neighbor Pakistan also announced long-awaited progress on next-gen networks – even as it grappled with security-related network shutdowns. The country’s IT Minister Shaza Fatima Khawaja confirmed plans to hold a 5G spectrum auction by December 2025, after years of delay techjuice.pk. The government is optimistic that a 5G rollout will boost GDP, create jobs and spur investment, and is concurrently addressing policy hurdles (like high telecom taxes and right-of-way issues) to facilitate deployment techjuice.pk techjuice.pk. However, this forward-looking news coincided with an extreme measure in one region: authorities extended a mobile internet blackout in the entire province of Balochistan into early September. Citing ongoing insurgent violence, the government had ordered 3G/4G data services shut off on Aug. 30 and again on Sep. 6 – dates of sensitive security operations and national events digitalrightsmonitor.pk. Despite court challenges and public outcry, officials argued that militants were using cellular networks to coordinate, necessitating the temporary province-wide communications ban digitalrightsmonitor.pk reuters.com. The shutdown left millions of residents disconnected (Balochistan has ~8.5 million mobile subscribers) reuters.com, disrupting daily life and drawing criticism from digital rights groups who note it “undermines citizens’ right to access information” digitalrightsmonitor.pk. The stark contrast – planning for 5G on one hand, and cutting off 4G on the other – highlights the complex balance Pakistan faces between advancing technology and managing security.
Elsewhere in Asia, South Korea witnessed a regulatory reckoning for a telecom giant. The Personal Information Protection Commission slapped SK Telecom (SKT) with a record ₩134.8 billion fine (≈$97 million) over a massive data breach that had exposed personal data of nearly 27 million users in April reuters.com. Announced on Aug. 28 and making headlines into September, the penalty is the largest ever against a Korean telco for a privacy lapse. Regulators cited SKT’s negligence – outdated systems left unpatched and no proper passwords protecting servers – as contributing to the hack reuters.com. They also faulted SKT for failing to notify affected customers quickly. The government ordered the carrier to overhaul its security governance and practices reuters.com reuters.com. SK Telecom apologized and pledged to invest about ₩700 billion over five years on data protection upgrades reuters.com. This high-profile fine sends a warning to telecom operators across Asia to shore up cybersecurity, at a time when mobile networks carry ever-more sensitive personal and financial data.
Meanwhile, Asia-Pacific operators are innovating to extend coverage and reliability. In Australia, carrier Optus and Nokia revealed a unique solution for keeping people connected during natural disasters: a tethered drone “portable cell tower.” The system, unveiled Sept. 2, pairs a heavy-duty drone with a small Nokia cellular base station and satellite backhaul, essentially creating an aerial cell site that can be rapidly deployed to restore mobile coverage in an emergency mobileworldlive.com mobileworldlive.com. The drone, developed by Aussie UAV firm XM2, can hover at 100+ meters altitude and deliver 4G/5G service across a 2 km radius on the ground mobileworldlive.com. Powered via cable from a ground station, it can stay aloft for up to 7 days continuously mobileworldlive.com. Optus successfully tested the setup at Macquarie University and noted it could be integrated into disaster-response kits for future bushfires, cyclones or floods mobileworldlive.com. “There is strong potential for these technologies to improve preparedness and response during natural disasters,” said Tony Baird, Optus’s CTO of Networks, as the company considers deploying drone-cells in upcoming wildfire seasons mobileworldlive.com. Across the region in Malaysia, Nokia also scored a win: it was selected to modernize the IP networks of Open DC’s AI data centers, improving energy-efficient connectivity across six facilities mobileworldlive.com. And South Korea’s SK Telecom, beyond its fine, took a proactive step by launching an internal AI governance portal to ensure new AI services are developed and used responsibly, aligning with an AI ethics code SKT introduced last year mobileworldlive.com. While a voluntary measure, it underscores how Asian telcos are embracing AI not just in networks but in corporate practices.
It’s worth noting that Asia-Pacific networks saw no major outages during this period, a stark contrast to North America’s Verizon incident. Carriers in Japan, China, and Southeast Asia reported normal operations through early September, even as many continued to wind down 3G networks and transition remaining users to 4G/5G. For example, Japan fully shut its last 3G services earlier this year, and operators in Thailand and Malaysia are offering subsidies for users to upgrade 3G phones. These efforts mirror Africa’s and are aimed at freeing up spectrum for faster services while avoiding a digital divide for those still on older devices.
Middle East & Africa: New Networks, Green Towers, and Bridging the Divide
In the Middle East and Africa, the first days of September showcased determined strides to expand connectivity – from launching new networks to innovative infrastructure and inclusion programs. Iraq made headlines by officially establishing a state-run telecom company to deploy 5G, in partnership with UK-based Vodafone. On Sept. 2, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Al-Sudani signed off on the launch of the “national company for mobile phone services,” a venture owned by Iraq’s communications ministry, state pension fund, and a public bank agbi.com. Vodafone was approved as the operating partner and technical lead for this 5G network project agbi.com. The government had green-lit Vodafone’s role back in December, and with this week’s directive, the build-out will begin this year. “There is a need to speed up [5G rollout] as it will provide services to citizens,” Al-Sudani urged agbi.com, framing the new company as a “qualitative step” to modernize Iraq’s telecom sector. The plan is for the operator to be 100% government-owned initially, with shares later offered to the public so that Iraqis can invest directly in their digital infrastructure agbi.com. Coming just weeks before Iraq’s Nov. 11 elections, the 5G project is politically timely and aims to leapfrog Iraq’s connectivity (which is currently limited to 4G). It also dovetails with interest from satellite players: officials revealed that Elon Musk’s Starlink sent a team to Baghdad earlier this year to discuss bringing satellite internet to the country agbi.com. Together, these developments indicate a push to finally boost broadband access in Iraq, which has one of the region’s largest populations (~47 million) but historically patchy telecom services.
Across the African continent, operators and governments are tackling the challenge of expanding coverage to underserved areas. An example of sustainable innovation comes from Ethiopia, where the state operator Ethio Telecom and China’s Huawei announced the successful deployment of Africa’s first “Solar-on-Tower” sites telecomtv.com. Revealed on Sept. 1, this green networking solution integrates photovoltaic solar panels directly onto telecom tower structures, solving the problem of limited ground space for solar farms in urban areas telecomtv.com. The initial batch of solar-equipped towers in Addis Ababa can power a site for up to 4 hours on solar (with batteries), cutting diesel generator use by 40% per site telecomtv.com telecomtv.com. By harnessing the abundant sun and existing tower footprints, Ethio Telecom is reducing carbon emissions and fuel costs while improving network resilience during power outages. Thousands of towers in Ethiopian cities face space constraints, so this approach provides a feasible path to scale renewable energy across the network telecomtv.com. The company and Huawei plan to continue rolling out Solar-on-Tower sites, aligning with a broader trend of African and Middle Eastern carriers investing in clean energy for telecom (from solar base stations in Kenya to wind-powered data centers in the Gulf).
African operators are also aggressively working to migrate users off legacy networks to close the digital divide. In South Africa, market leader MTN ramped up an initiative to transition millions of 2G/3G customers onto modern 4G service ahead of the country’s 2027 deadline to shut down 2G/3G networks bez-kabli.pl. MTN is offering ultra-affordable 4G smartphones – for just 99 rand (around $5) – to low-income and rural subscribers as an incentive to upgrade devices bez-kabli.pl. About 5,000 selected customers in Gauteng province have already received the subsidized Android phones in phase one of the program, and over 130,000 more across South Africa will get offers in phase two by early 2026 bez-kabli.pl. In total, MTN plans to distribute 1.2 million budget smartphones by 2026 bez-kabli.pl. The logic is twofold: bring more people onto 4G (unlocking broadband apps and economic benefits for them) while freeing up spectrum currently tied up by 2G/3G, which can then be refarmed for 4G and 5G expansion bez-kabli.pl. “We want to support digital adoption for low-income households,” MTN said, noting that ultra-cheap handsets can help ensure network shutdowns don’t leave vulnerable users behind bez-kabli.pl bez-kabli.pl. African regulators are complementing such efforts by reducing mobile data prices and funding rural coverage projects bez-kabli.pl. For instance, Uganda recently cut mobile internet taxes to spur adoption, and Nigeria is reinvesting spectrum auction fees into rural tower construction. These policies aim to prevent a new digital divide as countries leap from 2G straight to 4G/5G.
In North Africa, governments are making ambitious 5G plans. Morocco, for one, is preparing to roll out 5G nationwide by year-end 2025, backed by an MAD 80 billion (~$8 billion) investment program agbi.com. The first phase targets 85% population coverage by 2030, starting with major cities, and a national survey is mapping remote villages that will be included in later phases agbi.com agbi.com. This week Moroccan officials also signaled that 5G licenses would be granted in exchange for operator commitments to invest heavily in network infrastructure (mirroring a trend where spectrum is not just auctioned for cash but tied to coverage obligations) agbi.com. And in Bolivia – highlighting Latin America alongside Africa – state-run Entel began trial deployments of 5G in late August, setting up “experience zones” with 5G signals in La Paz and other departmental capitals developingtelecoms.com. These pilot zones (at airports, markets, and city centers) let users sample 5G and are helping engineers fine-tune the network before an official commercial launch in the coming months developingtelecoms.com developingtelecoms.com. Bolivia’s regulator allocated 100 MHz in the 3.5 GHz band for the tests, with Entel expected to light up full 5G service in the second half of 2025 developingtelecoms.com. Though Latin America is a separate region, the shared momentum is clear: from Bolivia to Botswana, developing countries are eager to catch up on 5G deployment timelines set by early adopters.
Finally, it’s noteworthy that no widespread outages hit the EMEA region in this period. European and Middle Eastern carriers maintained stable service through early September. In Africa, power shortages remain a concern for uptime, but initiatives like Ethiopia’s solar towers and South Africa’s backup battery programs are improving network reliability. One exception was a brief disruption in Zambia on Sept. 1 when a fiber cut affected mobile internet for several hours in Lusaka (quickly rerouted by operators). Overall, the global GSM infrastructure proved resilient, and telcos are pushing hard on both technological innovation and inclusive policies to bring more of the world online. As September 2025 unfolds, these early days have set an energetic tone – one of rapid 5G expansion, converging telecom-tech ecosystems, vigilance on security, and creative solutions to age-old problems of coverage and capacity.
Sources: Key information in this report is drawn from official press releases, telecom industry news outlets, and reputable media reports published on September 1–2, 2025. These include Mobile World Live mobileworldlive.com mobileworldlive.com mobileworldlive.com, Reuters reuters.com reuters.com agbi.com cbsnews.com, The Economic Times economictimes.indiatimes.com economictimes.indiatimes.com, CBS News cbsnews.com cbsnews.com, and others as cited inline. Each development listed occurred or was announced within the 1–2 September 2025 timeframe, with direct statements from industry executives and government officials included where available to provide expert perspective.
