AT&T CEO John Stankey (pictured) outlined the advantages he sees over the potential threat of a direct-to-device (D2D) service by SpaceX during a Q3 earnings call, which included much more low-band spectrum, a scaled network and the ability to penetrate buildings with its mobile service.

During yesterday’s (20 October) SpaceX earnings call, president Gwynne Shotwell said the low-band spectrum her company agreed to buy earlier this month can be paired with Wi-Fi for mobile connectivity indoors, along with devices in towers and Starlink installs across businesses and consumers’ homes.

Shotwell said Wi-Fi accounts for the vast majority of mobile connectivity, estimating its share at between 85% and 93% without providing details on how portals and passwords will be used.

“There are significant loads, even with robust Wi-Fi networks, that are out there,” AT&T’s Stankey countered on the operator’s own financial call today (21 October). “I think it takes a lot of years and a huge level of investment to get to the kind of performance levels that customers have become accustomed to in scaled networks that are running on the infrastructure that most of the incumbent providers have today.”

SpaceX has touted the nationwide low-band spectrum portfolio it bought from Grain Management as the means to enable in-building penetration for its D2D service, which Musk said yesterday will generate billions of dollars in revenue on a yearly basis.

“I wouldn’t over-rotate on what I would call one carrier of low-band spectrum,” Stankey said. “Let’s put this in perspective.”

By contrast, Stankey said AT&T operates six to eight carriers of low-band spectrum, deploying it not only at macro sites but also across every indoor building system in high-rises, hospitals and stadiums.

“We’ve got the scale where the scale matters,” he said. “98% of the traffic is where we’ve already built and where we already have capabilities and customers have become accustomed to a level of service that is pretty high.”

He added: “I feel really good about where we’re at.”

Q3 metrics
AT&T revenue grew 5.3% to $32.3 billion in the quarter ended 30 September, up from $30.7 billion a year ago.

Total service revenue increased 3.8%, its best consolidated growth in more than four years, reaching $26.3 billion. Wireless, fibre and the Lumen mass markets fibre business all contributed. Equipment revenue rose 12.1% year-on-year to $6 billion.

Income from continuing operations came in at $1.3 billion compared with $9.7 billion in the year-ago quarter, which benefited from the DirecTV transaction gain.

Post-paid phone net adds were 379,000, down 6.4% from 405,000 a year ago, with churn flat. The post-paid phone base now stands at 75.283 million, up 2%. Prepaid phone lost 21,000 customers.

Consumer and business internet net additions rose 25.4% to a record 769,000 from 613,000 a year earlier. Fibre net additions increased to 442,000 from 309,000, while fixed wireless access additions climbed to 327,000 from 304,000.

Total internet connections increased 29.3% to 16.2 million. Combined with phone additions, this pushed AT&T’s Advanced Connectivity net additions above 1 million for the second consecutive quarter. Advanced Connectivity service revenue reached $23.9 billion, up 6.1%.

AT&T added approximately 350,000 converged customers, with 42.8% of households using its fibre or Internet Air service also taking its mobile service.

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SpaceX plans to turn on its direct-to-device (D2D) service in early 2028 after launching the second generation Starlink Mobile constellation during 2027 and integrating spectrum it is acquiring.

On its Q3 earnings call, president Gwynne Shotwell said the low-band spectrum SpaceX agreed to buy earlier this month and the Federal Communications Commission’s approval to launch 15,000 next generation V2 birds “pave the way for Starlink Mobile to become a major mobile carrier in the US”.

On 8 October, SpaceX struck a deal to buy up to 14MHz of paired spectrum in the 800MHz band to support its plans. The agreement with Grain Management is expected to close in the first half of 2027, subject to regulatory approval.

Shotwell indicated comments on the previous quarter’s call covered smaller radios for the D2D service, which she described as not quite tower capable, that SpaceX could place on homes and businesses where Starlink is already installed.

“So, it’s not just the spectrum that we’ve talked about with the S-band,” she said on yesterday’s (20 October) earnings call. “We will basically leverage the real estate from Starlink installs and other towers.”

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

When asked about the roles the satellite and terrestrial networks will play for the D2D service, CEO Elon Musk said a more detailed presentation may be needed to explain Starlink’s connectivity strategy and why the company believes it could eventually generate several hundred billion dollars in annual revenue.

“You are missing some of the pieces that we know about internally,” he said. “I can say we do see a clear path to several hundred billion dollars a year in connectivity revenue, but I think we should probably describe that in more detail in a forum that’s not limited to a few minutes at an earnings call.”

Q3 numbers
SpaceX reported net income of $4.4 billion for Q3 (ending 30 September), compared with a $1.1 billion loss a year earlier, as revenue more than doubled to $14.6 billion, driven largely by its AI business.

It was the company’s second earnings report since its June stock market listing. Revenue was up 161% year-on-year.

The Super Intelligence segment, previously reported as AI, accounted for around $6.7 billion of the roughly $9 billion increase, with revenue rising to $7.6 billion from $813 million. SpaceX attributed the segment’s growth to new cloud services agreements, the Cursor acquisition and growing use of Grok.

Income from operations was $2.8 billion, compared with a $273 million loss a year ago, and adjusted EBITDA was $8.8 billion, up 306%.

Connectivity revenue rose 69% to $5.2 billion and operating income climbed 99% to $2.4 billion.

Starlink had 13.6 million consumer broadband subscribers, up 1.6 million in the quarter and from 7.2 million in Q3 2025.

For its direct-to-device service, Shotwell said Starlink Mobile surpassed 22 million monthly users at the end of the quarter, up 37% from the previous quarter.

SpaceX remains loss-making for the year to date, with a nine-month net loss of $413 million.

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Amazon outlined plans to invest more than €16 billion in its German operations in 2027 to expand its AI infrastructure, cloud computing and satellite connectivity.

The move adds to more than €100 billion Amazon invested in Germany since 2010 as it races against rivals Google and Microsoft to build out its AI services and cloud infrastructure in the nation.

David Zapolsky, chief global affairs and legal officer, described Germany as a centre of innovation and one of Europe’s most attractive investment destinations.

“We want German businesses, communities and creators to have the infrastructure and tools they need to compete and grow.”

The fresh investment includes €4.8 billion to expand Amazon Web Services’ Frankfurt cloud region and AI infrastructure to meet increasing customer demand.

It plans to bolster connectivity through its Amazon Leo satellite network to provide high-speed internet across the country.

Amazon Leo has secured 24 slots with European launch provider Arianespace.

The company plans to also broaden its logistics footprint and create new content for its Prime Video platform.

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Apple added a US titanium supplier for the iPhone Duo, committing up to $100 million to Pennsylvania-based Perryman Company while expanding domestic production of camera technology for the iPhone 18 Pro.

As part of its American Manufacturing Program (AMP), Apple said today (20 October) the deal with Perryman is over the next three years for titanium used in its products, including the iPhone Duo, which starts at $1,999.

The announcement follows reports of tight supply for Apple’s first foldable. The phone is due in stores on 23 October, but online delivery estimates slipped to January 2027 within minutes of preorders opening on 16 October.

Apple stated Perryman will melt, forge, and roll grade 5 titanium, which it said will contain at least 80% recycled material. Titanium is used for the Duo’s enclosure, providing durability, according to the iPhone maker.

It is also expanding its partnership with Qnity Electronics, headquartered in the US state of Delaware, to produce technology for the new variable aperture in the iPhone 18 Pro camera system.

Apple said nearly 100 components used in the iPhone Duo and iPhone 18 Pro, from wireless chips to the silicon which powers key functions across the devices, are produced by US companies across more than a dozen states.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company’s (TSMC) Arizona plant will produce more than 100 million chips for Apple in 2026, while ​Corning’s Kentucky facility ​will make ⁠all cover glass for iPhones and Apple Watches sold worldwide by year end.

Apple also highlighted investments with other AMP partners, including Broadcom for US-made chips and Amkor Technology, which is building a semiconductor packaging and testing facility in Peoria, Arizona.

“We’re thrilled to expand our work with companies producing advanced materials and components for our newest iPhone lineup right here in America,” stated Apple COO Sabih Khan.

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Chipmaker Qualcomm reportedly will cut an undetermined number of jobs following recent annual employee reviews, with impacted staff set to be alerted next month.

Reuters reported CEO ​Cristiano Amon (pictured) sent out a memo outlining the cuts were part of a plan to create “a stronger performance culture” and address areas where the company “has consistently fallen short of expectations”.

The news agency noted the memo did not disclose how many employees will lose their jobs but stated it had roughly 52,000 employees globally, most of them full time, as of September 2025.

While Amon has made a concerted effort to branch the company’s products beyond phone chips, Qualcomm has battled against the impact of a worldwide memory supply crunch.

For fiscal Q3, it posted revenue of $9.9 billion for the quarter ended 28 June, down 4% from $10.4 billion a year earlier while net income during the period was $2 billion, for a 25% year-on-year decrease.

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PHY Wireless and Ubiik teamed up to combine private LTE and 5G connectivity with device-based positioning, offering enterprise and industrial users a 3GPP standards-based alternative to proprietary location systems.

The collaboration combines Ubiik’s private LTE and 5G infrastructure with PHY Wireless’ hellaPHY technology, enabling enterprises, utilities, hospitals, and campuses to run communications and location services on a single network.

Potential applications include tracking assets, vehicles and equipment, improving worker safety and supporting physical AI deployments.

The companies explained GPS and Wi-Fi positioning can struggle in warehouses, containers and factories and may increase battery consumption. HellaPHY calculates location on the device rather than in the cloud, allowing devices to determine when an update is required.

This approach apparently reduces network traffic, data costs and power use, while enhancing privacy.

Because the system operates over standard LTE and 5G, customers could add positioning capabilities to existing private networks rather than deploy separate infrastructure, which the companies said would reduce deployment costs and simplify operations.

The pair also claimed the technology provides metre-level accuracy and can cut device power consumption by up to 10 times compared with alternative approaches. This aligns with emerging 5G-Advanced, eRedCap and 6G sensing standards.

PHY Wireless CEO Tom Horgan said organisations pursuing physical AI and automation require location technology that can scale across thousands of devices at a manageable cost. He stated location awareness is becoming a foundational capability for next-generation enterprise and industrial applications.

Ubiik CEO TH Peng added the collaboration demonstrated how the company could adapt its private LTE platform to incorporate new technology and support changing customer requirements.

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T-Mobile US is testing AI to allocate radio resources on its 5G-Advanced network, with Ericsson trial results showing the biggest gains during peak traffic.

The operator is trialling AI-Managed Beamforming on live commercial traffic at scale. Chief network officer Ankur Kapoor (pictured) outlined the results in a blog post. The work focuses on sounding reference signals (SRS), short transmissions from phones that help the network measure the path between a device and a cell site and direct beams more accurately.

Due to those resources being limited, they have traditionally been allocated under fixed rules. T-Mobile instead uses a supervised-learning model trained on its network data and running on Ericsson’s RAN compute and silicon to predict where demand is rising and redirect resources accordingly.

Kapoor explained training the model on T-Mobile’s data gives it an advantage on the operator’s network over networks which do not contribute their own tuning data.

The results came from newly activated sites in New York City, but the blog did not say how many were included or give a baseline for the trial.

T-Mobile reported the biggest gains during peak hours, including about a 50% increase in advanced beamforming using full-band SRS, a 16% improvement in downlink user throughput, 12% better spectral efficiency and a 10% increase in downlink data volume.

In May, the companies reported close to 10% better spectral efficiency from a separate AI-native scheduler with link adaptation on live traffic.

Kapoor said the technology suits T-Mobile’s network because beamforming works particularly well in TDD spectrum, where uplink and downlink share the same band, and the operator has a leading position in midband TDD.

He linked the trial to rising network demand, citing Ericsson’s June 2026 Mobility Report, which reported global mobile data traffic growth of 22% year-on-year. Video accounted for about 75% of traffic and 5G subscriptions topped 3.1 billion.

Jaco du Plooy, SVP and head of the T-Mobile customer unit at Ericsson Americas, stated the trial marked another step toward networks which respond more intelligently to demand, enabled by Ericsson’s silicon.

Kapoor said 6G networks will need to sense, learn and respond to support applications such as distributed AI, robotics, vision AI and other forms of physical AI, describing T-Mobile’s nationwide 5G-Advanced network as its proving ground.

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Globalstar secured US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approval for its next-generation C-3 satellite system as Amazon prepares to acquire the company.

The FCC granted nationwide authority to operate the system, which is designed to connect hundreds of millions of mobile devices in the US, including through direct-to-device (D2D) links to smartphones. The order also covers ground station antennas in Alaska, Hawaii, Nevada, Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico.

The approval strengthens the regulatory position of an asset central to Amazon’s effort to compete with SpaceX’s Starlink for D2D services.

C-3 will comprise 48 low Earth orbit birds at an altitude of 1,414 kilometres, along with six in-orbit spares and about 90 six-metre ground antennas worldwide. MDA Space is building the satellites in Canada, while control centres in Toulouse, France and at Globalstar’s Louisiana headquarters will oversee operations. France filed the system’s notification with the ITU.

CEO Paul Jacobs described the approval as a key step in improving the capacity, performance and flexibility of Globalstar’s services. Regulatory affairs chief Barbee Ponder said it concluded a multi-year licensing process with the FCC’s Space Bureau.

In April, Amazon agreed to acquire the satellite company for $11.6 billion as part of a push to add D2D services to its Amazon Leo constellation. The deal is expected to close in 2027, subject to regulatory approval and Globalstar meeting specified satellite milestones.

In July, Amazon Leo applied to the FCC in July for permission to deploy up to 5,105 satellites for direct-to-device services.

As of October, Amazon communications manager Zack Brown said the company had 396 LEO satellites in orbit and had built more than 1,000 at its 172,000-square-foot production facility in Kirkland, Washington.

Apple is a long-term Globalstar partner and has invested more than $1 billion in the company. Globalstar’s existing fleet supports iPhone satellite features including emergency texting, messaging, roadside assistance and location sharing.

Amazon also signed a separate agreement to provide satellite connectivity for current and future iPhones and Apple Watches, and committed to maintaining those services.

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Long time Boingo Wireless executive Derek Peterson (pictured) revealed on LinkedIn he has joined AST SpaceMobile as CTO, Enterprise & Platforms while also leading the satellite player’s CIO and CSO functions.

Peterson was at Boingo Wireless for 15 years, most recently as CTO Emeritus and strategic advisor after serving as CTO, CIO, COO, CSO and CPO at the wireless company for over 14 years.

In his new role at AST, he will lead enterprise IT, platforms, infrastructure, corporate networks and cybersecurity, including the CIO and CSO functions, and building the US software team while driving Wi-Fi and OpenRoaming integration.

“Connecting a regular phone straight to a satellite is the piece that completes the convergence picture,” he stated on LinkedIn. “I’ve spent my career chasing seamless connectivity, and I’m excited to join an innovative team that’s building it from space

AST SpaceMobile previously projected 45 to 60 of its next-generation satellites would launch this year for its direct-to-device service 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 followed a serious setback to one of its two main launch partners.

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The National Basketball Association (NBA), Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) and AT&T revealed the launch of the fourth generation of the High-Speed Arena Network (HSAN), the latest iteration of the leagues’ connectivity platform built to transport live game content, highlights, replays, in-arena programming and stats to fans and business partners.

With more than 68,000 miles of the operator’s fibre and network infrastructure, the HSAN will be built to transport more than 118 concurrent, high-quality, low-latency streams per game, supporting millions of hours of basketball consumption during the 2027-28 NBA season.

AT&T chief marketing and growth officer Kellyn Smith Kenny stated fans consume basketball across live broadcasts, replays, highlights, social media and NBA digital platforms. She added the companies were building the connectivity needed to distribute game content quickly and reliably, helping viewers stay connected to key moments wherever they watch.

AT&T, the NBA and the WNBA also extended their longstanding marketing partnership, continuing the operator role as the leagues’ Official Connectivity Partner, building on a relationship which began in 2018. The extension also continues AT&T’s partnership with the NBA G League, USA Basketball and NBA Take-Two Media.

As part of the marketing partnership, AT&T and the NBA will create new fan touchpoints across content and retail activations and give them more opportunities to engage with NBA stars and AT&T athletes. The operator will also continue to connect fans with their favourite teams and players through its partnerships with the Chicago Bulls, Dallas Mavericks, Miami Heat and LA Clippers.

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Interview: Seven months after its launch at MWC Barcelona 2026, the Linux Foundation’s OCUDU Ecosystem Foundation has added major technology companies and issued the second version of its open-source RAN software.

Dr Tom Rondeau (pictured below), principal director of the US Department of War’s FutureG programme, told Mobile World Live the initiative is working to a six month release cadence. The first release arrived in April, followed by the second version on 8 October.

OCUDU, short for Open Centralised Unit Distributed Unit, hosts open-source software for the RAN’s central and distributed units.

When the foundation launched, its members included AMD, AT&T, Ericsson, Nokia, Nvidia, SoftBank Corp and Verizon. FutureG and the US National Spectrum Consortium agreed to back it for three years with funds to be appropriated by Congress.

April release
Rondeau said the April release was mainly a rebuild. Software Radio Systems (SRS) re-architected its RAN code base, which dates back to the LTE-era, so a wider open-source community could work on it. He noted much of the cybersecurity benefit comes from making the code readable and clean.

“What that included though, aside from just good coding practices, was a basic 5G RAN that you could stand up,” he said. “A fundamental 5G with no bells and whistles necessarily but you could make a call across it, and you could have a data connection usually from standard 5G UEs”.

“That was important just as a proof of concept to get the basic bones of a 5G system out there and get people looking at the code and working with it,” he added.

It also included a significant number of interfaces based both on 3GPP and O-RAN Alliance specifications.

Rondeau said feedback on the first release has been positive, with developers describing the code as easy to use, fast and well documented. He added people have been “coming out of the woodwork” to say they have used OCUDU successfully.

October release
The latest version focuses on radio performance, led by beamforming and more advanced multi-antenna support. It also added work on non-public networks, resilience upgrades, bug fixes and support for more powerful phased-array radio units.

Rondeau said developers have repeatedly asked whether OCUDU can support non-terrestrial networks (NTN). The October release incorporated the 3GPP’s Release 17 NTN specification, drawing on SRS’ experience in the area and giving developers a platform for exploring space-based communications.

Membership growth
Samsung joined as a premier member in April, followed by Qualcomm in May and Intel in August, taking the group to 12 premier members and 34 general ones.

The premier members sit on the governing board and help drive the roadmap. Day-to-day, though, most of the companies still build their own features or are integrating OCUDU with their own products or stacks.

Genuine collaborative development, Rondeau said, is “a cultural thing that needs to be continuously worked on”. He stated the Linux Foundation had told his department OCUDU was its third-fastest-growing project.

Roadmap
Rondeau said the organisation is striving for at “least one real champion” to say it has integrated OCUDU into its products and can use it in commercial release.

“A year from now may be a little bit early,” he acknowledged. Integration in prototypes or test facilities would count, and he has heard “good rumours” about companies moving aggressively on their own.

A separate contract with Cohere Technologies, awarded by Rondeau’s office, offers another test. The goal is to use OCUDU to set up a call over the standard 5G NR waveform, then negotiate a switch to another waveform for the data plane.

In Cohere’s case that is Zac-Orthogonal Time Frequency and Space (OTFS), which lets the department test sensing and communications together. It will be built around an OCUDU-based RAN stack, which Rondeau called a major proof of concept for Cohere and for OCUDU as the core software of a working RAN.

That contract runs for two years, with completion expected around the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics and intermediate deliverables along the way. It will not be public in the way OCUDU is but Cohere has committed to releasing the interfaces back into the project.

The work also feeds into integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) which Rondeau sees as one leg of 6G alongside connectivity and edge AI compute.

Rondeau said sensing is critical to the US Department of War because it could close capability gaps and reduce the number of specialised sensors it needs to carry or deploy.

He added the US must compete with authoritarian adversaries which may take different approaches to how ISAC standards and technologies govern data management, security, processing and access.

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Jeff Bezos-owned Blue Origin outlined a plan to spend $330 million on extensive upgrades to its launch facilities in the US state of Florida to support multiple flights per week by the end of the decade. 

Blue Origin revealed it will add two additional launch and landing pads for its New Glenn rockets while also boosting its second stage manufacturing capabilities. Ian Richardson, Blue Origin’s SVP of operations, stated in a blog the expansion will be completed by the middle of 2027.

“These investments are centred on one goal: building the capacity to support more missions, more reliably, and more efficiently,” he said. “As we look ahead, this infrastructure is designed to support multiple flights per week by the end of the decade.”

The upgrades also include a new customer integration facility with the US Space Force at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida to give it “the ability to prepare multiple missions at once”.

Richardson noted the company has invested more than $3 billion in facilities and infrastructure across the state with more than 5,000 employees.

Blue Origin is seeking to ramp up the cadence of its rocket launches to better compete against Elon Musk’s SpaceX. Currently, Blue Origin has 396 LEO birds in orbit while SpaceX has approximately 11,150 Starlink satellites.

While SpaceX and Blue Origin use their rockets to launch satellites from other companies, CNBC reported the former has stopped commercial rides on its Falcon 9 rocket to support its larger Starship model.

Blue Origin suffered a setback in May when one of its New Glenn rockets exploded on the Florida launch pad. In July, Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp outlined a plan to rebuild its launch pad with a new configuration as it works toward returning its New Glenn rocket to flight before the end of 2026.

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Mercedes-Benz expanded its partnership with Nvidia to develop driver assistance and automated driving systems based on the carmaker’s MB.OS platform and the chip company’s computing technology and software.

The agreement combines Mercedes-Benz engineering and its MB.OS operating system with Nvidia’s Hyperion computing and sensor architecture, Alpamayo driving software and Halos safety system.

Mercedes CTO Jorg Burzer hailed Nvidia as its “most important strategic partner in automated driving”, describing the urban point-to-point assistance system the two built as the first of its kind from Mercedes for Western markets.

He added the extension is a milestone built on years of mutual trust, while stressing customers will still expect the safety standards the brand is known for.

Ali Kani, VP of automotive at Nvidia, said accelerated computing could help vehicles interpret their surroundings and respond to complex driving situations. He added the companies aim to make autonomous driving suitable for everyday use.

MB.OS will manage driving functions and over-the-air updates alongside Nvidia’s Hyperion in-vehicle computing platform. Alpamayo will provide software for urban point-to-point assistance, active safety and automated parking, while Halos will add a safety layer alongside Mercedes-Benz’s own systems.

The companies noted the technologies will also support future SAE Level 4 applications, including robolimousines.

Mercedes-Benz also uses Nvidia technology for vehicle-engineering simulations and in its MO360 digital-production platform, covering virtual planning and AI applications. The companies plan to expand the work across the carmaker’s global production network.

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Global telecom employment fell 2.1% year-on-year in Q2 2026, extending a decline dating to 2016, according to a report by MTN Consulting.

The report’s author, Matt Walker, chief analyst at MTN Consulting, said the panel of 145 operators employed about 4.2 million people, down from 4.3 million a year earlier. The 2.1% fall exceeded the decade-long annual average of 1.7%.

The job cuts did not consistently reduce labour costs or establish a direct link between AI adoption, smaller workforces and wider margins. Among 72 sizable operators, MTN Consulting found no measurable relationship between headcount changes and trailing four-quarter EBIT margins.

It also found no consistent link between AI-related news and restructuring. Telefónica cut its headcount by 19.3%, the steepest reduction in the industry, yet had no tagged AI-automation news, while SK Telecom drew the most AI coverage and reduced headcount by 6.2%.

The findings were less positive than those in other industry surveys. Nvidia’s fourth annual State of AI in Telecommunications report stated about 65% of respondents reported AI-driven revenue gains or annual cost reductions above 5%.

MTN Consulting found fewer than 20% of global operators increased revenue by more than 5% a year, while fewer than 20% cut operating expenses by over 5%. Only BSNL, Iliad and MTN Group achieved both, representing less than 2% of the global market.

MTN Consulting said the gap suggested survey responses reflected industry optimism rather than audited operating results.

Labour costs per employee across the global panel rose 6.8% year-on-year to about $62,500. Higher compensation per worker more than offset savings from job cuts, increasing the industry’s total labour bill.

Asia was the only region to add workers during the quarter, with headcount up 0.6%, largely due to hiring by operators including KDDI. Europe posted the largest decline at 3.4%, partly reflecting Telefonica’s 19.3% reduction. Employment fell 2.8% in the Middle East and Africa and 1.2% in the Americas.

Operators who cut staff were more likely to improve operating margins, but better performance was not assured. Event studies dating to 2011 found they outperformed operators which did not cut staff in about 57% to 67% of cases.

MTN Consulting advised operators, vendors and investors to assess workforce changes and automation returns using detailed financial data rather than broad technology claims.

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Apple, Nvidia and EchoStar chair Charlie Ergen reportedly committed $25 million each for the construction of US President Donald Trump’s White House ballroom project, which has raised $333 million to date in private donations.

The Washington Post reported “the vast majority of the funds raised came from companies and wealthy individuals with interests before the federal government” after obtaining an internal spreadsheet used to track contributions for the fundraising effort.

The Post noted more than three-quarters of the funding was pledged in amounts of at least $5 million, with Amazon, Comcast, Microsoft, and T-Mobile US among the largest corporate donors.

It stated Nvidia and Ergen, among others, requested their donations be kept anonymous

The news site noted companies or executives of firms that have had contracts with the federal government during Trump’s second term accounted for about half of the total funds raised for the project which also includes office space and an underground military facility.

According to internal contractor documents obtained by the Post, the total cost of the project is now $600 million after Trump initially stated he and wealthy donors would pay the estimated $400 million project, although Reuters reported he later unsuccessfully asked Congress for $1 billion. The Post noted Trump’s name did not appear on the list of 67 donors who contributed $10,000 or more to the project.

The funds for the project are administered through a complex, multi-step pipeline involving a private nonprofit, federal agencies and direct oversight by the Trump administration.

The news agency reported Nvidia became “a top contributor to the ballroom in October 2025, nearly three months after it struck a groundbreaking pact with Trump to sell advanced microchips to China despite national security concerns”.

“As an American company, our support for the United States is paramount, and independent of any business interests,” a representative for Nvidia told Mobile World Live. “We were proud to be able to make a donation to a nonpartisan trust that serves all Americans and have said so publicly since the donation was made.” 

Apple and EchoStar did not reply to requests for comment on their contributions.

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AT&T moved to tackle customer pain points such as phone transfers and long customer wait times by refreshing its America’s Best Guarantee programme, in a bid to win subscribers from rivals Verizon and T-Mobile US.

The latest iteration of the guarantee initiative now offers a connection with a customer service expert in five minutes or less, whether they are buying a new device, seeking technical support, paying a bill or starting service. If the timeframe is not met, customers will be offered a callback time.

Should the operator fail to connect customers with an expert within that timeframe, not offer a scheduled callback or falls short of other support promises, eligible customers may receive a benefit such as a bill credit.

Subscribers who pair AT&T Fiber or AT&T Internet Air with a mobile service will now have one dedicated technical expert to help them from start to finish.

AT&T Consumer EVP and GM Jenifer Robertson stated customers expect straightforward, fast and transparent support. She added the changes were intended to reduce friction, build trust and hold the operator accountable when it falls short of its service standards.

The operator offered its AT&T Guarantee to fibre, dedicated internet and wireless business customers after it launched a year ago.

In March 2026, AT&T extended the programme to offer bill credits to small businesses using its Internet Air fixed wireless access (FWA) service in the event of network outages.

In Q2 2026, AT&T reported 432,000 post-paid phone net additions while Verizon and T-Mobile had 184,000 and 277,000, respectfully.

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Verizon and Ericsson claimed the first pre-standard 6G field call in the 7GHz range, moving their testing from the laboratory to a commercial network site.

The call was conducted at a Verizon commercial site in Concord, California, using an Ericsson 6G proof-of-concept kit. The companies tested upper mid-band frequencies outdoors and measured how the signals penetrated a building.

The test used a base station installed on a site shelter and user equipment housed in a 12-by-8-foot mobile enclosure capable of supporting stationary outdoor and indoor radio configurations.

Positioned away from the site shelter housing the base station, the mobile test unit features custom power backups, varied glass and wall material configurations. The setup allows engineers to measure how a pre-standard 6G stack operating over a 400MHz carrier handles line-of-sight and non-line-of-sight paths, foliage, physical obstacles, and building entry loss.

The companies verified an outdoor call and are also testing how 6G signals travel from open-air environments into buildings. The work measures coverage, throughput, latency, stability and feature performance in real-world conditions.

Verizon CTO and SVP of technology development Yago Tenorio stated Ericsson plays a key role in the operator’s 6G Innovation Forum and its efforts to turn 6G research into practical deployments. He added the outdoor trial would provide technical insights to help shape global standards and guide the design and deployment of future networks.

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OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar reportedly warned businesses using low-cost Chinese AI models could face cybersecurity risks and said Western alternatives offered greater protection.

Speaking to Bloomberg at the International AI Summit in Dublin, Friar urged companies considering Chinese models to assess the safety and security risks.

OpenAI and rival Anthropic face growing competition from open-weight AI models, particularly those developed in China. Users can download and run them on their own hardware, often at a lower cost than leading US alternatives, with comparable performance on some tasks.

Chinese releases accounted for the largest share of generative AI model downloads on hosting platform Hugging Face in August, reported the outlet.

OpenAI and Anthropic mainly offer closed models which cannot be downloaded or modified. Both companies have argued open alternatives pose greater risks.

Anthropic head of international Guillaume Princen voiced similar concerns about open-weight models at the event.

“I can’t talk for open models. But by definition, there’s more risk with them,” he said.

The comments follow several cases of advanced AI systems behaving unexpectedly during cybersecurity tests.

In July, OpenAI disclosed its models had breached systems operated by AI start-up Hugging Face during an authorised cybersecurity evaluation.

Anthropic has also disclosed examples of model misbehaviour, including a Claude model submitting a false tip related to a homicide investigation, Bloomberg reported.

Friar nevertheless cautioned US AI companies against slowing releases.

“I do think that we need to pace it but not slow it down so much that we get this imbalance on who has access to the tools that potentially, from a cyber perspective, create real mission-critical issues in the world,” she said.

Katti plans exit
Also yesterday, Sachin Katti, OpenAI’s infrastructure lead, stated on LinkedIn he plans to leave his position on 15 November but will continue to support the company as an advisor.

“After an incredible year at OpenAI, I’ve decided to move on to build something new,” he stated.

Prior to joining OpenAI in November 2025, he held various technology roles at Intel, including Chief Technology and AI Officer.

CNBC reported Uday Ruddarraju, who has been serving as OpenAI’s CTO of compute, will replace Katti and lead the company’s overall compute organisation.

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Telus Digital is now a deployment partner for Germany-founded AI customer service specialist Parloa, expanding its enterprise services portfolio with support for the latter’s AI agents.

Under the agreement, businesses will buy the platform directly from Parloa and use Telus Digital for integration, change management, managed services, and other professional work. Telus Digital will also introduce Parloa’s technology to existing and prospective clients.

Parloa’s agents handle authentication, bookings, payments, and order enquiries, transferring conversations to a human when personal assistance is needed.

The company cited its own research to illustrate the shortcomings of existing customer-service tools. Its study of 10,000 enterprise websites and 4,000 chat interactions found fewer than 9% of chatbot conversations reached a resolution, while only about 10% of escalation attempts connected users with a person.

Separately, its Consumer Patience Index, a survey of 1,001 US consumers conducted by Propeller Insights, found nearly a third would switch brands to avoid being put on hold.

“Consumer expectations are high, and brand loyalty is fragile,” stated Parloa CRO Chris Silver. “They need to have their issue solved, the first time, on their preferred channel and with no unnecessary delays.”

The agreement expands Parloa’s delivery capacity in North America and Europe. Its platform runs on Microsoft Azure and supports multiple AI models, including OpenAI’s GPT series. The company stated it complies with GDPR and meets ISO 27001 and SOC 2 standards.

Telus Digital global SVP of growth Will Mayo framed the partnership around cost, arguing high volumes of repetitive contact-centre interactions can increase the cost to serve without improving customer experience. He said Parloa’s agents could handle routine requests and transfer more complicated cases to a person.

Telus Digital stated Parloa will complement rather than replace its existing tools because no single product is likely to cover every client requirement. Its portfolio already includes conversational AI combining voice, generative AI and agentic automation.

Backed by parent company Telus, the digital services division operates with more than 83,000 employees across over 35 countries.

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A high-stakes legal showdown between two giants of the mobile industry reached a critical turning point, as a US jury found Arm breached its long-standing Architectural Licence Agreement (ALA) with Qualcomm.

According to a statement by Qualcomm released yesterday (13 October), a jury in a US district court determined Arm failed to honour its contractual commitments and intentionally acted to disrupt Qualcomm’s business operations.

The decision marks a major escalation in the bitter dispute between the semiconductor heavyweights. The verdict follows what Qualcomm characterised as a prior court win last year in the ongoing legal battle over custom CPU architectures, licensing rights, and the deployment of advanced silicon design.

Qualcomm framed the outcome as a defence of open market competition and a validation of its technology roadmap.

“Together with Qualcomm’s prior court victory, this outcome further exposes Arm’s broader intentions to harm Qualcomm and its ecosystem,” Qualcomm said. “This outcome is a victory for innovation and competition, and we remain focused on developing and delivering industry-leading semiconductor products including our Oryon CPUs to customers and consumers worldwide.”

While Qualcomm claimed victory, Arm stated it yesterday it was “pleased with jury’s decision today finding for Arm on four claims and awarding only one dollar in damages on each of Qualcomm’s other two claims”.

“Despite Qualcomm’s pursuit of this case in an attempt to deprive Arm of billions of dollars under our licence agreements, the jury’s verdict confirms that Arm operated in good faith under its technology licence agreement and its award of only two dollars confirms the merit of Arm’s arguments in the case.”

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