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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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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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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Microsoft took the wraps off the third-generation of its in-house AI chip, as part of a plan to reduce its reliance on buying processors from Nvidia.

The Maia 300 chip will be used for the tech giant’s multi-gigawatt deployments in 2027, making it the primary inference system for Microsoft products and services. Reuters reported it plans to potentially deploy more than 1 million of the chips next year.

According to a blog post from EVP Scott Guthrie, the company expects Maia 300 to deliver 40% more tokens per megawatt compared to leading GPU-based systems without naming Nvidia.

The Maia 300 is built as a single system, with software, silicon, physical rack infrastructure, networking, and data centres co-designed to operate as a single platform.

Guthrie noted a 96-chip rack offers seven times the rack-scale token throughput of Microsoft’s Maia 200. He said the new chip is “designed with an inference-first architecture optimized for long-context, memory-intensive and decode-heavy AI workloads”.

The Maia 200 chip powers the company’s production workloads, including Microsoft 365 Copilot, as well as OpenAI models running on Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing service.

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MWL‘s Mike Robuck sits down with executives from Ericsson, AT&T, Verizon and the US Department of War (DoW) to discuss the progress Integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) has made this year and where it is headed next.

Ericsson Federal CEO Christopher Ling sees sensing as a potential killer app for 6G, arguing it could give the US military a reason to invest in commercial cellular infrastructure beyond connectivity.

Integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) turns communications networks into sensors by analysing radio signals reflected from objects. It can detect, track and identify objects in much the same way as radar.

Ericsson Federal Technologies Group is the vendor’s US unit focused on adapting its commercial network technology for federal government and national-security customers.

ISAC has moved beyond laboratory testing over the past year. It has been demonstrated at a stadium, included in a US Department of War (DoW) contract and proposed for a Los Angeles, California trial ahead of the 2028 Olympics.

Dr Tom Rondeau, principal director of the DoW’s FutureG programme, said denser 5G and 6G networks, edge-based AI compute and greater access to commercial spectrum are making network-based sensing viable.

“We have a network that covers 70% of the landmass of the United States and about 98% of the population,” he said. “That’s what we’re trying to use this for, to kick off the value proposition of ISAC.”

Rondeau highlighted drones, particularly swarms, as the immediate focus. The aim is to find, fix and track potentially thousands of devices, including in dense cities where traditional sensors struggle and radar cannot simply be pointed into open sky.

“It’s one thing to have a missile defence system or a drone defence system that gets to look up and out into open airspace,” he said, “but it’s another to track it in downtown New York [City] or downtown [Washington] DC.”

Network density could compensate for the limited sensing range of individual sites. At the power levels involved, a single base station might reach only a few kilometres, but sites spaced every half kilometre could extend coverage across much of the network.

Rondeau (pictured, left) pointed to Ukraine’s Operation Spiderweb, in which drones smuggled deep into Russian territory and controlled over Russia’s cellular network reportedly destroyed roughly a third of its strategic bomber fleet.

“That tells us that we can no longer think of border security as just looking out of our geographical borders,” he said. “We have to be able to look across our entire nation.”

Rondeau also sees civilian applications for ISAC. Drawing on his time at DARPA studying emergency planning, he cited Hurricane Katrina, when evacuation plans fell apart because people did not go where planners expected.

“It’s not like we’re going to redirect them to where we want to be,” he said, “so why don’t we redirect the resources to where they actually are.”

Trials
AT&T and Ericsson ran a drone-detection demonstration near AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, during the FIFA World Cup football tournament a few months ago.

In nearby Dallas, Verizon and Samsung tested a crowd-density heatmap at the World Cup FanFest area, designed to help fans find shorter queues and organisers manage foot traffic.

“That was a crowd sensing for the FanFest area, which is completely different to detecting drones,” said Verizon CTO Yago Tenorio. “It looks like a business-to-business opportunity that you can monetise.”

Tenorio explained ISAC presents fewer privacy concerns than cameras because it returns shape, movement and rough size rather than identity. It can distinguish “a pedestrian from a bicycle and a drone from a bird”, though not one person from another.

The DoW has also begun funding development. In July, Cohere Technologies won a $28 million contract from the FutureG Office to build a multi-waveform radio access network prototype which uses commercial cellular infrastructure to detect drones and other aerial threats.

Ericsson and Finnish state-owned ICT company Erillisverkot have also run live demonstrations in a Helsinki cargo harbour, using sensing data from several network points to detect small, low-altitude drones.

Verizon’s 6G forum
Verizon has made ISAC one of two anchor themes of its 6G Innovation Forum, which it expanded in September. The other theme is AI wearables. Tenorio stated the forum was created to “design 6G bottoms up”, starting with viable use cases and how they might be monetised.

At Qualcomm’s San Diego, California campus, Verizon tested 100MHz to 400MHz of millimetre-wave spectrum across four synchronised transmission and reception points. The system mapped the position and velocity of an airborne target and moving ground vehicles while keeping a phone user on the ground connected over standalone 5G. Verizon presented the trial as a test of drone and vehicle safety tracking.

Millimetre wave was the only spectrum which offered enough bandwidth, Tenorio said, and bandwidth, more than frequency, determines sensing accuracy.

“The precision of the positioning and the radar image… is proportional to the bandwidth of the signal,” he stated. “Not so much the frequency, but the bandwidth.”

Technology divide
Huawei appears to have an early lead in ISAC deployments. Ling said Ericsson had been told the Chinese vendor has more than 300 ISAC-capable systems operating, although he cautioned the figure might not be exact. He linked the reported lead to China’s early nationwide shift to standalone 5G.

Ling (pictured, left) explained there’s a difference in terms of network architecture. In a monostatic configuration, one tower transmits a signal and receives its reflection, indicating an object’s presence and general direction. Huawei developed a monostatic system and, in Ling’s view, may now be reconsidering that approach. As far as he knows, Ericsson is the only company using a multistatic configuration, in which one site transmits and other sites receive the reflected signal, enabling more precise location and tracking.

A monostatic system might show an object is off to the left, he said. A multistatic system could place it 1,500 metres away, measure its speed and track it to within eight to 10 metres, the resolution he said the Arlington demonstration achieved.

Ling stressed that Ericsson is focused on 5G sensing rather than a fully integrated sensing and communication system. Turning a 5G network into a radar remains a significant technical challenge, he noted, and the company wants to establish the capability before moving further.

It has committed $100 million to ISAC and expects a commercial product within two years, ahead of the standards debate expected at the 2027 World Radiocommunication Conference.

Ling said micro-Doppler signatures from spinning propellers could allow the system to identify a drone type as well as locate it. “It’s not only detecting, tracking, you can get identification from it as well,” he said.

The resolution may eventually be good enough to support targeting without the more expensive radar systems the military uses today.

“You’ve got a drone that costs $30,000 and we’re shooting it down with a million-dollar missile,” he said. “This starts to bend the cost curve.”

Ericsson has held discussions with European countries bordering Russia, Ling added, and sees growing interest in the Middle East, where governments are concerned about protecting infrastructure.

From 5G to 6G
Tenorio described current ISAC work as a step towards 6G. Vendors are fitting sensing into 5G and 5G-Advanced systems while preserving as much connectivity capacity as possible; 6G would allow them to design the capability into the network from the outset.

“On 5G, you’re just squeezing it in as best as you possibly can,” he said. “But if you understand how it works, you have the opportunity to design it natively in 6G in a way that comes with no compromise.”

Verizon plans to extend its ISAC work to Los Angeles. The carrier has applied to the Federal Communications Commission for a one-year experimental licence to use 4.8GHz to 4.9GHz spectrum, part of the 4.4GHz band the NTIA is studying for 5G and 6G. It plans to test Ericsson hardware and software in and around its LA lab. The filing describes an outdoor private network within a five-kilometre radius, separate from commercial networks. The application is pending.

Tenorio called the band “a good compromise” between available bandwidth and a frequency low enough to propagate farther. Verizon has also applied to take part in the NTIA’s Mission 6G 28 programme, which will showcase 6G technology around the 2028 Olympics.

“LA will be an important opportunity for us to display not only what 6G is about… but where we are in terms of advancing the technology,” he said.

Beyond drones and crowds, Tenorio sees enterprise uses such as digital twins of factories and campuses. At shorter ranges, he said, ISAC could support vital-sign monitoring and fall detection in elderly care.

Shawn Hakl, SVP and head of product at AT&T Business, sees the value in places where cameras and sensors are impractical, or the assets belong to someone else. He cited public safety, analytics and flow control, and spotting changes such as an unplanned obstruction on a city street.

“ISAC gives us a way to get sort of topology information, environment information without having physically deployed stuff and basically getting signal data back,” he said.

Ling stated the military case may ultimately depend on sensing rather than connectivity: a customer which would not buy a 5G network solely for communications could still need the infrastructure to obtain 5G sensing.

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Spain-based CaixaBank and Google Cloud extended their partnership to 2033 as the bank looks to expand its use of AI and cloud technologies to serve 13 million customers.

Under the agreement, CaixaBank will deploy Google Cloud’s Gemini Enterprise platform to develop and manage AI agents. The bank expects the agents to help employees analyse complex financial information, automate repetitive tasks and streamline everyday workflows.

The companies identified three areas for the expanded partnership. CaixaBank plans to use Gemini Enterprise to analyse large datasets and deploy specialised AI agents for document management, classification and summarising complex content.

CaixaBank will combine its private systems with Google Cloud infrastructure to increase resilience, scalability and service availability. The agreement also covers threat detection and security monitoring.

The agreement includes professional services, joint projects and training to help employees use the new technology. The work will operate under CaixaBank’s security, privacy and responsible AI policies.

CaixaBank first partnered with Google Cloud in 2023. The bank stated it has the largest digital customer base in Spain’s financial sector.

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Elon Musk-controlled SpaceX struck a deal to buy a nationwide low-band spectrum portfolio from Grain Management, ratcheting up its challenge to compete with US carriers for mobile customers.

The transaction for all of Grain Management’s nationwide portfolio of up to 14MHz of paired spectrum in the 800MHz band is subject to regulatory approval by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Financial terms are not available.

“This is the last critical piece of the spectrum puzzle needed for SpaceX to provide complete phone coverage in America,” Musk said on X above a post which questioned the company’s direct-to-device (D2D) strategy.

SpaceX stated Starlink Mobile’s global 2GHz mid-band spectrum will deliver high-capacity coverage in the US, while the newly acquired low-band frequencies will improve signal reach through obstacles including walls and extend service to devices indoors. The company added most existing mobile devices already support the underused band.

SpaceX plans to pair its satellites with ground-based femtocells to provide 5G mobile coverage, a plan many executives in the industry consider far-fetched.

The company stated the low-band spectrum would address a key remaining technical gap and help pave the way for Starlink Mobile to become a major US mobile carrier.

SpaceX stated once it garners approval it “will deploy a flexible architecture combining our satellite-to-mobile constellation in space with an advanced terrestrial deployment that can seamlessly connect devices everywhere”.

The move follows through on its plan to roll out a D2D service to compete against T-Mobile US, Verizon and AT&T.

On 6 October, SpaceX announced a regulatory win after it secured FCC approval to launch 15,000 next-gen satellites for D2D.

In August, T-Mobile US completed the sale of its nationwide 800MHz spectrum portfolio to Grain Management in exchange for $2.9 billion in cash and all of the latter’s 600MHz spectrum licences more than a year after agreeing a deal in principle.

Grain Management previously outlined a plant to work with energy and infrastructure specialist Black & Veatch to market the spectrum to utilities, critical infrastructure operators and rural and regional carriers.

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OpenAI’s annualised revenue reportedly reached $50 billion in September, falling $20 billion short of estimates due to accounting discrepancies rather than a slowdown in demand.

The Financial Times (FT) reported financial documents viewed by investors put its annual revenue at $50 billion in September instead of the widely reported $70 billion.

The news site noted the shortfall was due to attempts by OpenAI’s own investor to provide a comparison to rival Anthropic’s annualised revenue run rate. CNBC reported Anthropic’s annualised run rate hit $65 billion by late July 2026.

While the $20 billion gap sounds like a sudden drop, OpenAI clarified to investors its direct revenue still grew by over 70% in Q3 2026 alone, according to FT.

Reuters and other news outlets reported OpenAI was approaching $70 billion in late September based on a more than ​twofold increase in enterprise sales since July.

FT explained the two AI players calculate revenue in different ways, with Anthropic including sales from cloud partners such as Amazon Web Services and Google while OpenAI does not.

Anthropic is reportedly targeting an IPO in November after the US midterm elections while OpenAI is targeting a listing next year.

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Verizon continues to retool its executive leadership team, with Adam Koeppe, chief network officer for core engineering and operations, set to depart by the year-end.

Koeppe stated on LinkedIn “it’s time to move on to the next chapter” after more than 26 years with the company.

“My confidence in Verizon’s future remains high,” Koeppe stated. “The mission to build, secure, and scale the foundational networks of tomorrow matters now more than ever.”

He started his career in telecommunications as a customer service representative at Bell Atlantic Nynex Mobile which was a joint venture that eventually led to the formation of Verizon.

Recon Analytics analyst Roger Entner stated on LinkedIn Koeppe was one of the employees “who made Verizon Verizon almost from day one,” while congratulating him on “a terrific and highly impactful career”.

Koeppe was named to his current position in December 2025 after working in several technology and engineering roles during his career at Verizon.

Koeppe’s planned departure came after current CEO Dan Schulman took over as chief in October 2025 with a pledge to overhaul the company, including its executive team.

The company announced a plan to slash 15,000 jobs in November 2025, which was followed by laying off roughly 3,000 retail and corporate employees in July 2026.

Verizon announced in June 2026 Joe Russo, executive VP and president of global networks and technology, is retiring in Q1 of next year after 30 years at the company. He will be replaced by ex-Deutsche Telekom executive Abdu Mudesir.

In February, Verizon consumer chief Sowmyanarayan Sampath stepped down from his role as part of Schulman’s turnaround effort prior to resurfacing as CEO of Zayo on 1 September.

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Aerospace and defence groups are reportedly pushing back against a SpaceX-backed effort to overhaul wireless spectrum coordination for rocket launches.

Bloomberg reported the proposed changes would replace the third-party frequency-coordination system overseeing how government agencies and commercial entities share key telemetry bands.

The FCC sought public comment on modernising launch spectrum coordination following an August 2026 Presidential Memorandum and a petition filed by the Commercial Space Federation (CSF).

According to filings highlighted by outlet Vertical Aviation International, CSF asked the FCC to replace the existing flight-test frequency coordination process with direct coordination and an automated, near-real-time database across shared telemetry bands.

A coalition representing aerospace and defence organisations, commercial aircraft manufacturers including Boeing and Lockheed Martin, and flight-test operators submitted formal comments urging the FCC to proceed cautiously.

In a joint submission, the Aerospace & Defense Industry Spectrum Coalition warned the proposed coordination changes could increase the risk of harmful electromagnetic interference.

The coalition stated these shared frequencies are vital for real-time safety telemetry during prototype aircraft evaluations, electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) certification flights, and defence readiness testing.

It also argued the FCC’s expedited comment schedule did not allow sufficient time for comprehensive technical studies to verify non-interference.

The clash leaves the FCC balancing faster rocket launch schedules against the need to protect aerospace and defence users of the same spectrum from harmful interference.

FCC bird approval
SpaceX notched a regulatory win after it secured Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approval to launch 15,000 next-gen satellites for its direct-to-device (D2D) mobile service, creating a path to compete directly with AT&T, T-Mobile US and Verizon.

SpaceX filed its application with the FCC in September 2025 ahead of rebranding its D2D satellite offering as Starlink Mobile earlier this year.

Elon Musk-controlled SpaceX is targeting a download speed of 150Mb/s for its D2D service compared to about 4Mb/s on the downlink for the Starlink provisioned offering by T-Mobile.

Instead of relying on a terrestrial network with cell towers, SpaceX plans to pair its satellites with ground-based femtocells to provide 5G mobile coverage, a plan many executives in the industry consider far-fetched.

“With this action, SpaceX’s planned deployments will reshape spectrum-based connectivity by improving competition, allowing more consumers more choices in more places to further the Commission’s goal to connect everyone, everywhere to modern communications services,” the agency stated on 6 October

The FCC also issued SpaceX a waiver to offer its service through satellites without entering into a leasing agreement with a terrestrial mobile operator.

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Finnish authorities told Google to suspend preparatory work on two planned data centres pending environmental reviews, after the company unveiled a €13 billion investment in the country’s AI infrastructure.

The Finnish Licencing and Supervision Agency (LVV) issued a notice to Google subsidiary Tuike Finland Oy to immediately suspend the data centre projects in Kajaani and Muhos regions “until the environmental impact assessment procedures for the projects have been completed”.

Tommi Muilu, head of the authority’s environmental department, stated available reports indicated extensive preparatory work had already taken place at the project sites, including tree and topsoil removal, construction of site roads and storage areas, alterations to ditches and culverts, and stormwater works.

“In our opinion, the measures in question will change the environment and cause impacts, the identification and assessment of which are among the key objectives of the EIA procedure,” he stated.

The suspension request applies, among other things, to the removal of trees, removal of topsoil, excavation, quarrying, crushing, transfer of soil masses, drainage and the construction of construction site roads and storage areas.

The request does not apply to planning, measurements, soil surveys or other measures with minor impacts and that can be easily restored.

The notice to Tuike Finland Oy ordered it to suspend work no later than 23 October until the environmental impact assessment procedures have been completed.

“We understand the concerns and have fallen short of our own high standards in this instance,” a Google representative told CNBC, adding it will follow the LVV’s guidance.

In addition to the data centres, the digital infrastructure project also includes AI facilities, nuclear power and renewable energy as part of Google’s largest single outlay in Europe.

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Trump Mobile’s customer database was reportedly hacked, exposing personal data of 3,615 subscribers in the latest set-back for the company launched by US President Donald Trump’s two oldest sons.

Straight Arrow News reported the hack appeared to be carried out last week by cybercrime entity BYOD.

The outlet reported BYOD claimed Trump Mobile stated it lacks a cybersecurity team after telling the company of the breach.

Trump Mobile representatives reportedly also likened BYOD’s actions to terrorism.

Straight Arrow News reported BYOD made the list of customers publicly accessible.

PCMag reported BYOD was able to gain access to the customer data through malware installed on the device of a Liberty Mobile employee, the MVNO behind Trump Mobile.

After a review of the stolen customer data, Straight Arrow News determined the leak included personal details about Trump Organisation VP and CIO Eric Brunnett, but not the president’s family.

Sensitive customer information was exposed in May, when the company began shipping devices.

Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump announced Trump Mobile and unveiled the T1 Phone in June 2025.

The device was priced at $499 and the company took $100 deposits from an estimated 600,000 people as it targeted first shipments in August or September 2025.

A claim the device was “proudly designed and built in the United States” was later stripped from press materials and the company’s website.

CNN previously reported the device strongly resembles a Chinese phone which retails for less than $200 at retailer Walmart.

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Nvidia highlighted work to help operators rethink dependence on closed AI systems, promoting open-source models to give carriers direct control over network automation and customer workflows.

In a blog, Nvidia stated operators including SoftBank Corp, AT&T and Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison are increasingly deploying open models alongside proprietary systems, explaining they retain full visibility over sensitive network data and can fine-tune models for their specific operational needs.

The move reflects a broader shift across telecommunications.

Nvidia highlighted the findings of its State of AI in Telecommunications 2026 survey in which 89% of operators deemed open-source software critical to their AI strategy, driven in part by independent benchmarks showing open models closing performance gaps in reasoning, coding and autonomous network triage.

Operators are dividing their workloads rather than relying on a single system. Expensive, proprietary models are reserved for complex tasks where closed platforms still hold an edge, while lower-cost open foundation models handle day-to-day operations.

SoftBank used Nvidia’s Nemotron family as the foundation for its Large Telecom Model, employing years of internal operational data.

Rajeev Koodli, principal fellow at SoftBank and SVP of SB Telecom America, explained open models allow it to capitalise on rapid global AI progress and its accumulated network expertise.

AT&T is also taking a multi-model approach. Chief data and AI officer Andy Markus said the goal is to intelligently match “every workload to the right combination of performance, cost and control.”

Nvidia highlighted Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison tailored its open models to Indonesian language and culture.

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Dell’Oro Group reported worldwide telecom capex rose 5% year-on-year in the first half of the year, exceeding expectations following several years of declining investments.

Despite the promising start to the year, Dell’Oro’s long-term outlook remained largely unchanged by forecasting telecom capex growth of up to 1% CAGR through 2030.

Telecom equipment performance continued to closely mirror capex trends. Combined vendor revenue from the six telecom equipment segments monitored by Dell’Oro, comprised of Broadband Access, Microwave Transmission, Optical Transport, Mobile Core Network (MCN), Radio Access Network (RAN), and High-End Router & Aggregation, also increased by about 5% over the same timeframe.

Dell’Oro VP Stefan Pongratz explained operators have greater capacity following the 5G and fibre investment cycles and are gradually redirecting spending from coverage to capacity, modernisation, automation and efficiency.

“At the same time, improving operator revenues are helping to reduce capital intensity ratios even as network investments remain flat,” he stated.

Capital intensity, which peaked at 18% in 2022, is forecast to decline to around 14% in 2028, ahead of increasing slightly as early 6G investment starts.

Overall, telecom equipment revenue is projected to grow at a 2% to 3% CAGR between 2025 and 2030, outpacing CSP capex, partly due to incremental demand from cloud providers.

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AT&T, Global Infrastructure Partners and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board are creating a fibre joint venture (JV) by combining the Forged Fiber 37 and Gigapower assets, in a boost to the operator’s goal of providing connectivity to more than 60 million locations by 2030.

The JV will operate as a wholesale fibre commercial open access company. The operator stated it will utilise AT&T’s fibre assets and investor capital to expand fibre and 5G services across 16 states, enhancing customer experience with converged connectivity. The JV is expected to close in the first half of 2027.

Forged Fiber 37 is a wholly owned subsidiary created by AT&T to house the mass-markets fibre business, customer relationships, network assets, and build engine which AT&T acquired from Lumen Technologies.

Global Infrastructure Partners is a subsidiary of Black Rock. AT&T and Black Rock formed Gigapower, a wholesale open-access fibre network JV, in 2022.

AT&T will retain 50% ownership of the JV while GIP and CPP Investments will collectively hold the remaining stake.

AT&T CEO John Stankey is bullish on the convergence of fibre broadband and 5G services and has long held wherever it has fibre deployed “it wins”.

Stankey stated fibre is essential in an AI-driven world as demand for symmetrical, high-capacity and low-latency connectivity grows. He added the offering will extend reliable, high-speed fibre to more US consumers, increase AT&T’s scale and service reach and strengthen its position in converged fibre and 5G connectivity.

Last month the operator announced a multi-year fibre and cable deal valued at more than $3 billion with glass-specialist Corning to advance its converged strategy of mobile and broadband services.

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Telus and AST SpaceMobile completed an initial integration test between the mobile operator’s terrestrial network and the satellite player’s space-based infrastructure ahead of enabling direct-to-device (D2D) calls and text messages.

Independent analyst Carlos Placido told Mobile World Live southern Canada should have better coverage than other regions due to the inclination of AST SpaceMobile’s satellites.

“They said they would have 45 to 60 satellites in orbit by year-end, but currently have only 12, making that target seem unlikely,” he said.

Canada has large rural areas where terrestrial connectivity is not available which makes D2D services more attractive.

Telus EVP and CTO Nazim Benhadid described the successful test with AST SpaceMobile as an important step towards extending mobile coverage to areas without service, supporting the operator’s goal of providing reliable connectivity to more Canadians.

AST SpaceMobile previously projected 45 to 60 of its next-generation satellites would launch this year but is now targeting having approximately 45 in orbit by early 2027.

The delay was revealed in a Securities and Exchange Commission regulatory filing tied to a $1 billion notes offering and follows a serious setback to one of its two main launch partners.

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US President Donald Trump (pictured) appointed Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton as his administration’s AI czar as part of an effort to coordinate the government’s initiative across the sector.

In a social media post, Trump stated Clayton will lead the newly formed Super Intelligence Force (SIF) to coordinate “the effort of the Federal Government to ensure that America continues to lead the World in Super Intelligence, which many say is bigger than the Industrial Revolution”.

Trump recently rebranded AI as “super intelligence” by signing an executive order directing all federal agencies, public communications, websites, and policy documents to use the new name.

He said SIF will oversee the federal government’s engagement with consumers, public interest groups, religious organisations, critical infrastructure providers, and super Intelligence companies.

The President has continued to downplay the potential impact AI could pose to humanity, arguing a recent pact signed by some of the top AI companies to self-regulate their efforts is sufficient.

The Wall Street Journal reported Clayton’s panel will review AI-related risks and current government mechanisms for breaches, hacks, and other related incidents while recommending ways to strengthen the government’s response capabilities using existing authorities.

Trump explained SIF will report directly to him and his Chief of Staff, Susie Wiles.

Musk rebrands
Elon Musk posted on X stating he was renaming SpaceX’s AI division to SpaceXSI to follow Trump’s lead on the term super intelligence.

“Yes, we ​will make that change,” he ​replied to a user on X asking ⁠him about the possibility of ​renaming SpaceXAI to SpaceXSI.

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Former Verizon and Ericsson chief Hans Vestberg (pictured) was named senior adviser at investment bank Evercore to provide technology insights to its customers.

The US independent investment bank provides strategic and financial advice to boards of directors, management teams and shareholders on M&A, capital structure, restructurings and strategic shareholder consulting.

Evercore chair and CEO John Weinberg said Vestberg’s decades of leadership experience in global telecommunications, along with his knowledge of technology, international markets and complex strategic matters, “will further strengthen the advice and insight we provide to our clients”.

The executive was replaced as Verizon CEO in October 2025 after being in charge for more than seven years.

Earlier in his career he spent more than 25 years at Ericsson, including a stint of more than six years as CEO.

In February, he was appointed a senior adviser to AI data centre infrastructure company Digipower X to help the company with its expansion plans.

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Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen reportedly cast doubt on whether AI companies would honour a voluntary safety pledge agreed after a meeting with US President Donald Trump last week.

Haugen told CNBC OpenAI, Anthropic, Nvidia, Meta Platforms, Microsoft and Google needed to “step up and comply” with the AI agreement.

“The history of tech companies engaging with regulation is: Often they will follow the exact written statement when we are dealing with very flexible systems,” Haugen told CNBC.

She questioned whether the companies would follow the “spirit of the rules” or exploit conduct that was not expressly prohibited to “go around the end of the fence”.

Haugen pointed to Anthropic and CEO Dario Amodei’s support for independent auditors as evidence companies were addressing safety more proactively as concerns about AI posing an existential risk intensified.

“I think that is an acknowledgement that at least Dario knows that if you’re given the space to cut corners, even the angels among us begin to cut corners,” Haugen told CNBC.

In 2021, Haugen, who previously worked as a product manager on Facebook’s civic misinformation team, provided internal documents to the Wall Street Journal, prompting a series of reports known as The Facebook Files.

The documents included evidence the company knew its platforms were harming teenagers’ mental health.

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MobileX beefed up its executive team by hiring Raju Datla (pictured) as its CFO, which followed special purpose acquisition company CONX taking a controlling stake in the MVNO in August.

The company stated Datla brings more than 25 years of experience across technology, finance and business strategy. Prior to MobileX, he served as CFO of RedCloud Holdings, where he led finance, capital markets and the financial execution of the company’s global expansion.

His career stops also include serving as CSO at Tillman Fiber and as CFO and co-founder of NxtGen Datacenter & Cloud Technologies.

Earlier in his career, he worked at Deutsche Bank, advising technology media and telecommunications companies on more than $12 billion in M&A, debt and equity transactions.

Datla will work with founder and CEO Peter Adderton to lead funding, partnerships and financial strategy.

“MobileX is at a point where we’re not just scaling what we’ve built; we’re expanding what the platform can become,” Adderton stated while adding Datla “understands both the technology and the financial strategy needed to support that ambition”.

Under its new ownership structure with Charlie Ergen-controlled CONX, MobileX launched its first hybrid retail wireless model with CallSign Mobile in September.

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