A survey by Verizon Frontline revealed daily AI usage by US public safety agencies nearly tripled over the past year while drone and robot deployments also saw an uptick.

The sixth annual Verizon Frontline Public Safety Communications Survey, conducted by Lexipol Media Group, highlighted daily use of AI reached nearly 32%, while 56% of public safety agency users anticipate daily AI reliance within three years, signalling it as a critical decision-support tool.

Additionally, the daily use of drones and robots increased from 15% to 26% as agencies more frequently use them to navigate hazardous environments to keep human emergency responders out of harm’s way while providing real-time situational awareness.

Network resilience remains a priority as agencies adopt these technologies, with more than 77% of the responders identifying it and reliability as their main operational requirements. Network performance also shapes personal device choices, with about 49% of respondents citing resilience and reliability as the biggest factor when selecting a device plan.

Kim Mirabella, VP of Verizon Public Sector and Verizon Frontline, stated the 2026 findings show technologies including AI and robotics, once considered futuristic, are already essential tools used by first responders every day.

Verizon stated 1,035 US public safety professionals took part in the survey

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The GSMA board outlined the industry’s connectivity priorities, calling for action on smartphone affordability, online scams and network investment while backing closer international cooperation on future 6G standards.

Following a board meeting in New Delhi, India, the industry association stated that although 97% of the global population live within mobile broadband coverage, 3.4 billion people remain unconnected to mobile internet. The cost of devices remains a significant barrier, with an entry-level internet-enabled handset equivalent to 44% of average monthly income for the poorest 20% of people in low- and middle-income countries.

The GSMA highlighted potential measures to improve affordability including financing schemes, targeted tax cuts and closer cooperation between device makers and memory suppliers.

It also identified scams and fraud as a growing threat, warning that although the mobile industry continues to strengthen network detection and cyber defence tools, “no single sector can tackle the threat alone”. The GSMA noted AI-generated content and deepfakes further add to risks for consumers, public trust and government objectives, calling on the industry to “join forces to counter scams with practical solutions”.

Sustained investment
The GSMA also highlighted the need for network investment and supportive policy to accelerate connectivity growth. It found mobile technologies and services generated $6 trillion in economic value in 2025, equivalent to 6.4% of global GDP. This figure is forecast to reach $11.3 trillion by 2030.

In addition, operators are projected to invest $1.2 trillion in capital expenditure between 2025 and 2030 to expand and upgrade networks, with 57% of mobile connections expected to use 5G by the end of the decade.

GSMA director general Vivek Badrinath said the sector’s next priority must be to translate 5G expansion into “meaningful value”, ensuring more people can participate in the digital economy. “This will require sustained investment, enabling policy and collaboration across the wider ecosystem,” he stressed.

Looking ahead, the industry association reiterated its support for global standards and harmonised spectrum as 6G development continues. It highlighted countries representing more than 80% of the world’s population support mobile use of the upper 6GHz band, which could provide the 200MHz to 400MHz channel bandwidths expected to be needed for 6G.

GSMA chair Gopal Vittal said that “by working through global standards and collaborating across markets, we can accelerate innovation, strengthen trust and resilience” as the industry develops the next generation of connectivity.

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Apple expanded its smart home portfolio of devices as it looks to better compete against rivals including Google and Amazon, which included the debut of its $299 HomeView hub.

HomeView Hub, which is available from 13 November, recognises users by their faces to allow them to give hands-free commands to access personal content across Messages, FaceTime, Calendar, Reminders, and Find My.

It is available in two distinct configurations: a tabletop design powered by a standard USB-C cable or a wall-mounted version which connects via various options, including Ethernet or Power over Ethernet (PoE) wired mounts, with the latter available in early 2027.

HomeView Hub, which includes a 7-inch LiquidRetina display, does not have buttons, instead it relies on the new Siri AI to enable users to access apps or content. With a built-in, front facing FaceTime camera, it can recognise up to six different users by voice or appearance. It then gives personalised responses to each one for tasks such as accessing calendars, videoconferencing, viewing cooking recipes or listening to music through its speakers.

CCS Insight chief analyst Ben Wood, who attended today’s (13 October) event in New York City, told Mobile World Live HomeView “has quite a distinctive design compared to rival smart home devices”.

“It will be immediately familiar to anyone who has used an Apple Watch, and Apple has the advantage that it can use Apple ID to easily and securely identify individuals in a household to provide information specifically about them,” he said. “It is little surprise that the HomeView coincides with Apple’s renewed push on Siri AI and Apple Intelligence.

“The company has undoubtedly been waiting for the upgraded Siri experience, given how important the voice interactions are with this product,” he added.

To increase its presence in the smart home sector, the iPhone maker partnered with LG Electronics Inc. and Schneider Electric SE to release a lineup of Apple Home Collection accessories, including indoor and outdoor cameras, a video doorbell, thermostats, and door locks.

Wood noted these partnerships signalled a willingness by Apple to go outside of its own ecosystem to develop new products and services.

“However, looking closely, it appears like there has been very deep collaboration between Apple and these partners to ensure the design, engineering and experience closely match what users would expect,” he explained.

While Apple’s tie-ups with LG Electronics and Schneider Electric mark a shift from its traditional strategy, Wood argued they give consumers a single source for a smart home set-up.

“By making cameras, a lock, thermostats and a doorbell as easy to connect as AirPods, the companies address one of the sector’s biggest hurdles: “the complexity of getting things working,” he said.

Availability for the Home Collection products starts in December, with select accessories available beginning early 2027. The prices range from $199 to $399.

“Since Apple is calling the suite of new products the Apple Home Collection, I’d expect it to dedicate space in its extensive network of Apple Stores to showcase a turnkey smart home solution,” Wood stated. “Given that many technology enthusiasts have already adopted smart home products from other manufacturers, I suspect Apple’s new lineup will appeal to customers who have considered investing in a smart home device but have been apprehensive about the category’s complexity.”

Under the leadership of CEO John Ternus, who took over in September from Tim Cook, Wood argued Apple is taking a cautious approach to the smart home market where rivals such as Amazon’s Ring, Google’s Nest and Arlo and others “already have a strong profile”.

“But Apple may benefit from making the experience seamless, building on its trusted reputation and focus on privacy while giving existing customers yet another reason to stay inside its extremely strong ecosystem,” he said.

More devices
Alongside HomeView, Apple unveiled an updated Apple TV 4K set-top box with built-in microphones and a remote control which is easier to locate. It also features Siri AI which enables users talk to Siri hands-free.

Customers in the US and 29 other countries and regions can pre-order Apple TV 4K starting today from Apple’s online and in the Apple Store app, with availability in stores beginning 13 November. It cost $299 or $9.83 per month for six months.

It also introduced the HomePod mini 2 speaker, which comes in a fresh range of colours, including pink, green, blue, white, and midnight, and features lighting animations which reflect the album artwork of the song being played.

The speaker can provide room-filling sound on its own, as part of a stereo pair or in a multiroom audio set-up. When connected to the new Apple TV 4K, four HomePod Mini 2 speakers can create a surround-sound home cinema system which Apple claims is its most immersive home theatre setup to date. Multiple users can also control smart home accessories and automations securely through voice commands.

HomePod Mini 2 can be pre-ordered starting today with availability beginning on 30 October. It is priced at $149.

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India’s Adani Enterprises Limited and Apple supplier Jabil signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to form a 50:50 joint venture, tasked with manufacturing AI and data centre equipment in the country.

The JV is the next step on from a deal struck by the duo in June 2026 to form a strategic alliance to develop an AI and data centre infrastructure manufacturing ecosystem.

Once established, the pair stated the venture will supply hyperscalers, neoclouds, data centre operators and enterprises, serving accelerating data centre demand.

The companies cited industry forecasts which project India’s AI capacity will reach between 5 gigawatts to 8 gigawatts by 2030 and more than $50 billion in planned hyperscale spending across data centre, cloud and AI ecosystems.

In total, the pair peg the global market opportunity at more than $3 trillion over the next seven years, driven by investment in AI computing.

The duo will look to cash in on this demand by providing a manufacturing base in the country to serve domestic demand and support exports.

Adani Group, which runs the enterprise division, has made a $100 billion commitment to develop 5 gigawatts of green-energy powered, hyperscale AI-ready data centres by 2035, and the proposed venture adds hardware manufacturing to the group’s presence across infrastructure, energy and logistics.

Jabil makes components for Apple and will use the JV to expand its engineering footprint across India. It reported revenue of $36 billion in fiscal 2026.

Gautam Adani, chairman of Adani Group, said “the AI revolution will demand far more than just breakthroughs in algoritms” and the proposed JV would “help build the physical backbone of the global AI economy”.

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Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg (pictured) reportedly claimed the company had reached the “frontier” of AI, as it unveiled two new models designed to handle complex personal and professional tasks.

Following hefty investments in computing infrastructure and research, the technology giant said Muse Wonder and Muse Wonder Full AI mark “our most capable models to date”.

The models can handle tasks ranging from coding and document analysis to interpreting legal information, personal finance and health data.

Among key features is Active Memory, enabling the retention of relevant user information across conversations. The agents are also equipped with Active Focus to help them continue pursuing longer tasks, adapt to new information, recover from errors and ask users for clarification before taking important actions.

Meta claimed its evaluations showed strong results across benchmarks covering agent performance, memory and coding, adding the advanced Muse Wonder Full version performs better on unfamiliar tasks.

Built responsibly
Unlike its earlier open-source strategy, Meta is offering Muse Wonder through its own developer and subscription channels in a direct challenge to AI chatbots from rivals including OpenAI and Anthropic. According to the Financial Times (FT), Meta said it would charge companies from between 20 cents per million tokens for basic access to as much as $200 a month for the more powerful Muse Wonder Full. 

Speaking to the publication on the launch in which he made the comment about frontier AI, Zuckerberg added the new models would enable “much more sophisticated behaviours that are at the frontier of what is being done in the AI field”.

Meta claims Muse Wonder surpasses Anthropic’s Claude Opus 5.5 and Fable 5.1 and OpenAI’s GPT-6 Astra on certain technical measures.

Zuckerberg added that reaching this point required “a large amount of compute and investment” alongside sustained research. He told the FT that further model development and spending was under way, stating the company was “already working on the next step up”.

The chief also played down mounting concerns about increasingly capable AI systems escaping human control, declaring: “I’m much closer to the belief that AI is a technology that can be engineered with normal guardrails and built responsibly.”

Meta said its new models were trained to prevent unauthorised disclosure of private information and reject requests to facilitate harmful actions, while retaining agentic capabilities for defensive cybersecurity work.

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Nokia signed an agreement to sell its Enterprise Campus Edge (ECE) business to investment company Aurelius Group, a move the Finnish vendor stated sharpens its portfolio and directs capital to areas earmarked for long-term value.

Value of the planned transaction was undisclosed and Nokia expects the deal to close in the first half of 2027, subject to customary closing conditions.

Nokia this month also completed a deal to sell its fixed wireless access (FWA) CPE business to US broadband vendor Inseego.

Under Aurelius’ ownership, Nokia said ECE will continue to operate as a standalone business but benefit from greater independence and a dedicated strategic focus. Employees are expected to transfer with the business, in accordance with applicable local laws and processes.

ECE has a big presence in the private wireless market, serving almost 900 customers across industries including manufacturing, mining, logistics, airports, ports and power generation worldwide.

Its portfolio also includes industrial devices, on-premises operational technology, edge and micro-edge solutions and software applications to power industrial AI use cases.

Konstanty Owczarek, chief corporate development officer at Nokia, said the deal provides ECE a strong foundation for growth. “Our priority throughout the transition will be continued growth of the business and continuity for existing customers and employees,” he added.

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BT Business unveiled a managed security service aimed at increasing protection against AI-enhanced attacks for enterprises and public sector organisations, combining its technology and know-how with that of partner Microsoft.

Announcing the Security Operations Centre-as-a-Service (SOCaaS) product for the Microsoft Sentinel platform, the operator noted the launch was the result of an extended relationship with its partner across AI, security and cloud.

BT added the product combined the tech giant’s “leading security technology” with its scale, security and network operations.

Pointing to the need for beefed-up security in the AI era given accelerated attack timelines, BT positioned the offering as helping customers cut complexity of security operations, control costs and “improve detection, response and resilience”.

BT Business CEO Jon James explained “AI is transforming the cyber threat landscape at unprecedented speed, and our customers need protection that stays one step ahead”.

“By extending our partnership with Microsoft, we’re combining cutting-edge security technology with BT’s cyber expertise and threat intelligence to deliver stronger, more proactive protection”.

The managed service launch is the latest enterprise-focused offering promoted as helping UK organisations battle the ever-increasing tide of cybercrime.

In May, it unveiled what it called industrial-grade security products for small and medium sized businesses using technology from specialist CrowdStrike.  

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Interview: AT&T Business selected Amazon Leo for an enterprise broadband service designed to complement its fibre and 5G offerings, describing the satellite provider as a business-grade alternative to Starlink.

Shawn Hakl, SVP and head of product at AT&T Business (pictured), told Mobile World Live the service adds a third connectivity option, including in areas beyond the reach of AT&T’s terrestrial networks.

“We’ve done a lot of integration with Amazon and we’re working with them at different levels,” he said. “We’ve tested the product out pretty extensively and we’ve seen sub-50 millisecond latency. We’re also extremely happy with the throughput.”

Amazon Leo selected AT&T Business as its sole US telecoms launch partner.

“They’ve been extremely willing to work with us to fine-tune the interaction between the two networks,” Hakl explained. “We’re working closely with them on how to harmonise the in-air component and the interaction between our network and the ground stations.”

AT&T Business is providing the last-mile connectivity and local customer equipment for the service, while working with Amazon on the interaction between AT&T’s terrestrial network and Amazon Leo’s ground stations.

He said the operator is striving to make the connection between its network and the cloud “a software consumable element” which could be combined with satellite, wireless and wireline connectivity in an end-to-end architecture rather than offered as a series of point-to-point products.

Hakl said some customers will want traditional active-passive setups, others active configurations and some multiple-box arrangements.

“I don’t think we can get down to a single box in the first iteration,” he noted.

Hakl stated combining fibre, 5G and satellite will enable AT&T Business to deliver different services, SLAs and business outcomes for each customer. This will give customers more granular control over how applications use network resources, including the ability to balance performance, cost and security across their connectivity options.

Customers could choose how much control they retain, Hakl said. Some may want to manage network decisions in detail, while others could leave them to AI models.

Hakl noted AT&T has sold satellite services for a decade, particularly in agriculture, manufacturing and retail, while public safety through FirstNet is another area of focus.

“If the price point comes down, obviously it becomes more of an option for different segments in the market,” he stated. “We’re just impressed with Amazon’s technology and feel like it’s the business-grade solution that’s out there.”

Hakl said AT&T Business expects to offer the service next year, although the timing remains tied to Amazon Leo’s satellite launch schedule.

Launch timing
In July, Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp outlined a plan to rebuild its Florida launch pad with a new configuration after a failed attempt as it works toward returning its New Glenn rocket to flight before the end of the year.

Also in July, Amazon Leo applied to the US Federal Communications Commission to deploy up to 5,105 birds to deliver direct-to-device services to mobile devices.

And in October, Amazon company communications manager Zack Brown revealed the company currently has 396 LEO birds in orbit and said the company has built over 1,000 satellites at its 172,000-square-foot production facility in Kirkland, Washington.

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