Enterprise & Telecom Technology Industry News
Sustainability featured in several announcements. Oracle committed up to $1 million to fund carbon capture and sequestration research at its Project Jupiter site and across New Mexico, aiming to capture carbon dioxide from Bloom Energy fuel cells, establish permanent storage pathways, and develop a viable commercial model. Ericsson and Beyon extended their sustainability MoU after an initial two-year collaboration that delivered up to a 30 percent reduction in network energy consumption and the responsible recycling of 54 metric tons of e-waste.
Optical and transport networks set new benchmarks. Telstra and Ciena transmitted 1.6 Tb/s over 1,100 km on a live production network between Melbourne and Sydney, a world first achieved using WaveLogic 6 Extreme and L-band spectrum. Nokia and Orange France completed the world’s first live service provider network tomography trial, using Nokia Bell Labs algorithms to give near real-time visibility into the health and performance of Orange France’s optical transport network. XKL enhanced its MediaLight products for AI and high-performance computing workloads, providing sub-5µs optical transport for data center interconnects to prevent latency and GPU idle time across regional compute clusters. In Peru, ZTE deployed its CoMP SD solution to achieve a 110-kilometer microwave link in the Amazon with 99.999% availability while reducing hardware requirements and capital expenditure.
Several firsts pointed to new service possibilities. T-Mobile and Jio announced the world’s first 5G Standalone roaming connection, made possible by Syniverse’s global mediation platform. Vodafone and Ericsson demonstrated real-time noise cancellation and language translation running directly within the mobile network, integrating Vodafone’s AI platform with Ericsson’s core so the features work on any mobile phone without specialized apps. SoftBank and Sceye completed a world-first laser ranging demonstration in which SoftBank’s ground team continuously tracked Sceye’s stratospheric platform, advancing free-space optical communications between ground, stratosphere, and space. And BT Business and British Transport Police launched the UK’s first national routine Beyond Visual Line of Sight drone operations, using BT’s Drone SIM and EE’s mobile network to deliver real-time intelligence for faster, safer responses to incidents across Britain’s rail network.
CX/DX News
In CX/DX, Netcracker and C Spire deepened their long-term partnership by integrating agentic AI into C Spire’s revenue management and customer experience operations, aiming to further automate customer interactions, enhance digital bill presentment, and reduce operating expenses. Kapwork introduced Growth Suite, a free platform that helps small businesses find infrastructure work and access capital. It includes a tracker for the $42.45 billion federal BEAD broadband program and free invoice certification that verifies receivables and matches businesses with credit providers, with trackers for data center fit-outs and federal contract awards to follow.
Market News
Finally, the Market section featured a wave of forecasts, research, and deal activity. Juniper Research projected that global spend on private LTE and 5G networks will reach $84.7 billion in 2031, a nearly 400% increase from 2026, driven by the connectivity needs of scaling AI systems, and named Nokia, Huawei, Samsung, HPE, and Ericsson as leading vendors. Juniper also forecast that omnichannel payment platform revenue will grow 57 percent to $108 billion by 2031, ranking Stripe, Worldpay, PayPal, Square, and Adyen as top platforms. Aragon Research unveiled the Intelligent Communications Experience market, which unifies UC and contact center platforms with human employees and AI agents and is forecast to reach $251.83 billion by 2031, with endorsements from Intermedia, Mitel, RingCentral, and Vonage. MarketsandMarkets expects the data center energy storage systems market to grow from $5.17 billion in 2026 to $10.48 billion by 2032, and Market Research Future projected that the Visible Light Communication market will reach $130.19 billion by 2035, growing at a 37.5 percent CAGR on smart city and LED lighting deployments.
Access and consumer research added further perspective. Dell’Oro Group reported that global broadband access equipment revenue fell 3% to $4.5 billion in 2Q 2026, even as North American PON spending rose 26% year over year and residential Wi-Fi 7 router shipments grew 62%. The GSA FWA Forum’s annual survey forecast double-digit growth in fixed wireless access CPE shipments by the end of 2026, with 5G devices expected to make up nearly 70% of shipments and North America leading at 28%. The Mobile Ecosystem Forum found that Europeans spent US$14 billion on carrier billing in 2025, more than 10% of the region’s digital goods and services revenue, with subscription bundling growing twice as fast. Ericsson ConsumerLab’s “An agentic life” report predicted that agentic AI will transform network traffic by 2030, finding that 38 percent of smartphone users expect to use agentic AI for daily tasks. Striking a note of caution, the GSMA warned of an emerging AI divide, as more than 3.4 billion people remain offline despite mobile broadband coverage and rising component costs fueled by AI infrastructure demand push entry-level smartphones out of reach.
On the deal front, Grain Management completed the combination of Ritter Communications and Great Plains Communications to form Rightfiber, which serves more than 400 communities across 20 states with over 300,000 FTTH passings and has secured a $1.6 billion credit facility for growth. Trimble acquired Terasat Japan, expanding its centimeter-level VRS positioning services across Japan for geospatial, construction, automotive, and agriculture customers. And Lightera announced a major capital investment in submarine optical fiber manufacturing in Denmark and the United States that will nearly triple capacity by 2029, positioning the company for AI-driven subsea demand and the commercialization of multicore fiber.
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