RCRWireless News

1 Ericsson has a direct role in the UK military’s £8 billion tactical comms overhaul, highlighting the growing importance of private 5G, drones, and AI in battlefield engagements; the win also exposes the Swedish firm’s contrasting strategy to rival Nokia. Defense deal – Ericsson has been selected to supply services and components under the MoD’s RM6393 framework, positioning it to supply and integrate tactical 5G systems through 2034.

1 Operational gains  –  AI for RAN is leading adoption because it delivers immediate benefits—including lower operating costs, improved energy efficiency and better network performance—without requiring major RAN upgrades. Shared infrastructure  –  Red Hat expects operators to gradually move toward common AI and RAN infrastructure, with proof-of-concepts accelerating through the remainder of the decade ahead of commercial 6G.

2 From the newsletter (sign-up if you want it sooner): Despite the hype and investment pouring into satellite D2D services, new analysis says space-based connectivity will complement, not replace, terrestrial networks, whose advantages in capacity, coverage, reliability, and economics remain decisive for mass-market communications. But BMW, and lots of others, see its uses. Maybe it needs restating: satellite direct-to-device (D2D) services will not replace terrestrial wireless infrastructure.

1 The telecom industry’s network API conversation has matured quickly. The early work was about exposure — how to make network capabilities available through standardized, developer-friendly interfaces. The harder work is now about adoption — how to turn those capabilities into enterprise outcomes. That is where Deutsche Telekom’s Chathurangi Wickramasinghe, SVP Magenta Business API, starts the discussion. She framed network APIs as a way to deliver measurable business value.

2 New forecasts say the private 5G market will grow at 34 percent annually to pass $6.6 billion by 2030; but the bigger story is how the sector has become a proving ground for the whole industry’s AI-era tech-go gambit – as a comms platform for digital change. What a brilliant and complicated little market.

1 From the newsletter (sign-up if you want it sooner): Nokia’s new AI-RAN platform presents a vision of a future where telcos become part of the AI infrastructure stack. Whether operators embrace it remains uncertain – but there might be some lessons from the humble private 5G market. What a brilliant and complicated little market.

1 From the newsletter (sign-up if you want it sooner): Ericsson’s latest results capture a company and an industry caught between resilience and stagnation: strong margins and disciplined execution offset weak 5G demand, while hopes for growth increasingly rest on AI, automation, standalone 5G, and future network upgrades. So, it’s a little tough to cover the news, compile the newsletter, and prep and chair a bunch of sessions about quantum-safe networks.

0 A national-scale rollout – SoftBank is offering its OpenAI-based “Patching as a Service” to roughly 3,000 Japanese companies the government has certified as critical infrastructure operators. Agentic, not automatic – Semi-autonomous agents continuously scan, prioritize, and propose remediation plans, but the service doesn’t push patches into production — human teams still execute.

1 Software over hardware – The AirScale radio upgrade is evolutionary; the real change is AI embedded in how the network tunes, heals, and powers itself. From MoU to deployment – A March 2025 MWC memorandum covering AI mobile networks has now moved from proofs of concept to network-wide commercial rollout. Energy as the throughline – ReefShark silicon plus AI-driven power algorithms support Taiwan Mobile’s RE100 pledge to hit 100% renewable electricity by 2040 — and cut opex along the way.

1 Nokia’s AI-RAN platform promises to more than double spectrum efficiency through software-driven upgrades, combining Nvidia acceleration with flexible deployment options. But analysts suggest the technology may optimize existing networks rather than expand the RAN market. Spectral gains – Nokia’s new AI-RAN platform combines its anyRAN software with Nvidia’s accelerated computing, and promises more than 100 percent spectral efficiency gains by 2028.