Light Reading

Global mobile take-up has slumped in the past two years and it's not clear why.

As funds begin to roll out from the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) program, here's a former broadband director's take on why states must follow rules to assess applicants' financial viability and business case in advance.

Mark Vasconi served as the Director of Washington's state broadband office from 2022-2023 and as Director of Regulatory Services at the Washington Utilities & Transportation Commission from 2010-2022.

The rapid adoption of cloud-native technology, multi-RAT deployments, and regional networks has led to increased network complexity and significant O&M challenges in the telecommunications industry.

In early 2024, China's capital city Beijing launched a pilot project on vehicle-road-cloud integration that could help the city form a more intelligent, more efficient, and safer transportation ecosystem.

The churn of subscribers continues following the introduction of higher fees in July.

South Korea's KT Corporation plans to further integrate AI into its network management system to optimize network operations in the future.

Light Reading contributing editor Robert Clark and Ross O'Brien, analyst-in-chief at Delta Analysis, discuss SoftBank's big AI-RAN play, Samsung's rare stock buyback, and China's appeal for a unified 6G. Also, Michael Ackland, Vocus Group's GM for Federal Government & Strategic Projects, discusses Darwin's potential as a connectivity hub and why so much Asian Internet traffic is routed to the US through Australia.

A commitment by Vodafone and Three to invest billions in 5G would be very hard to police, and measures would be risky for the telcos.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Swisscom offers 'maximum Swissness' in AI; MTN explores open RAN's potential in Africa; GenAI is the new porn for UK blokes.