Yet a new source of demand is emerging — not from humans but from machines. AI agents are beginning to transact thousands of times per second, executing trades, scheduling deliveries, authenticating identities, and negotiating contracts with no human in the loop. Connected vehicles already generate terabytes of sensor data daily, and while most of it will be processed locally, even a fraction flowing through networks represents a seismic shift. Industrial robots on factory floors, drones in the airspace, and smart energy grids will all rely on constant streams of verified, low-latency interactions.This machine-driven internet is not about how many gigabytes are consumed. A drone monitoring an oil pipeline doesn’t care if it sends twenty megabytes or two hundred; what matters is that the signal arrives in five milliseconds, not fifty, and that it can prove the device on the other end is genuine. A trading algorithm won’t choose a network based on marketing, but on whether its transaction is cleared deterministically with zero packet loss. An AI-powered medical device doesn’t care about “unlimited data,” but whether the network can guarantee integrity, trust, and compliance in real time.

We spend less than 1% of our revenue on R&D. In 2022, AT&T, with more than $120 billion in revenue, spent just over $1.2 billion on research and development. Vodafone and Telefónica are in the same range. Compare that with Alphabet, which allocates approximately 15% of its $280 billion in revenue to R&D, or Meta, at nearly 20%. Even Apple, often described as conservative, spends more than 7%.Our spending goes elsewhere. CAPEX intensity for the sector runs at 15% to 18%. For Vodafone, €7.8 billion on €45 billion of revenue; for AT&T, roughly $24 billion a year. Spectrum auctions, towers, and fibre consume everything. Then come dividends. European operators yield between 5% and 8%. AT&T yields around 6. Debt service takes another 10% of revenue. The sector carries more than $1.7 trillion in debt, with leverage at three times EBITDA in many cases. After those obligations, there is nothing left for invention.

À la sortie des caisses, Élodie, mariée et mère de famille, explique que, désormais, avec les craintes liées aux taxes, aux impôts et à l’emploi, elle fera plus attention à ses dépenses : "C'est la rentrée en sixième, un gros cap avec le passage au collège, donc forcément des dépenses plus importantes et une attention vraiment portée sur les prix."

The environmental impact of streaming extends far beyond servers and networks: it reaches our mobile devices and living rooms. At Greening of Streaming, we’ve been investigating where and how energy is consumed across the streaming ecosystem. These four recommendations emerged from our research and testing. We don’t claim they are the most important actions, but they are practical, user-facing steps that operators and service providers could promote or support today.

The combination of ARPU obsession and gross adds worship locks telcos in a bundle-and-churn model. It encourages volume chasing, discounting, and endless promotions, instead of building long-term value. It makes operators look busy, more gross adds, and higher ARPU, while masking structural weakness.This is why telcos, even after pouring over $3 trillion in CAPEX over the last decade, haven’t seen revenue growth keep pace with data traffic. The KPIs they still cling to are built for a world of selling minutes and megabytes, not for today’s digital ecosystems.

The problems were obvious the moment the decision was taken. Non-standalone meant carrying two cores in parallel, the EPC and the new 5G core. That doubled everything: testing, integration, operations. Every new feature had to be checked twice, and even then, it would not behave the same across both paths.Worse, most of the real innovations we had been working toward could not even run on NSA. Network slicing, ultra-low latency, voice over new radio, all of that depended on the standalone core. With NSA, the user got a faster radio link but was still anchored in a 4G brain. It was like upgrading the wheels of a car and leaving the old engine under the hood.

Post-COVID, telcos share a baseline of compliance, security, and sustainability, but now split between traditionalist office-first cultures and technologist AI-first models.

Pangilinan-led telecommunications giant PLDT Inc. has lowered its capital expenditure (capex) ceiling for 2025. The telco said the lowered capex ceiling for 2025 was “due to more favorable pricing and successfully negotiated terms with vendors.”

GLOBE Telecom Inc. said on Sunday it is staying on course to lowering its capital expenditures (capex) to “below $1 billion” in 2025, as it aims to sustain positive cash flow. Globe President Ernest L. Cu said through a statement that the sustained capex reduction follows a strategic shift toward optimizing existing network assets and improving operational efficiencies.

DITO wins 14 of 16 Mobile Network Experience awards outright in this report including all five Overall Experience and all five 5G Experience awards. DITO also wins Consistent Quality, Reliability Experience and both Availability & 5G Availability awards. DITO continues a run of dominance with also being the most awarded operator in the previous report. DITO has ascended quickly to dominating the Mobile Network Experience awards since its launch in March 2021. DITO has also quickly gained subscribers and expanded physical infrastructure since its launch. At the end of 2024, DITO had 14 million subscribers and had completed over 7,000 towers nationwide, a requirement of its rollout commitment.

Mobile data traffic globally is expected to grow by 20 percent annually through the end of 2029. 5G subscriptions are predicted to reach around 560 million in the Southeast Asia region by the end of 2029. Data traffic per smartphone user in Southeast Asia is expected to grow from 17GB/month in 2023 to 42 GB/month by 2029.

Three independent models, grounded in public data and two decades of telecom experience, to estimate the real cost of building 6G.

Effective immediately, this partnership integrates Silvus’ industry-leading tactical mesh networking technology into Commdex’s solutions portfolio – addressing the rising demand for mobile, resilient, and decentralized communications. From natural disasters to high-risk tactical operations, StreamCaster MANET radios enable critical connectivity when every second counts.

According to Greg Brown, chairman and CEO of Motorola Solutions, Silvus’ technology enhances his company’s existing portfolio of land mobile radio and video technologies. “Silvus’ advanced solutions for drone and unmanned systems are trusted in the world’s most demanding defense environments,” Brown said. The acquisition is expected to enable the delivery of autonomous technologies that can be easily controlled by operators in the areas of defense, border security and public safety.

Une faille critique dans la technologie eSIM a été découverte par des chercheurs. Présente sur plus de deux milliards d’appareils IoT, cette vulnérabilité permet d’installer des programmes malveillants et de voler des données. La faille a été colmatée.

Bouygues Telecom et SFR entament la cession d’Infracos à Phoenix Tower. Une opération stratégique sur 3 700 sites radio, aux enjeux financiers et réglementaires majeurs, attendue pour fin 2025.

Mobile access and transport together can easily make up more than half of a mobile capital budget's planned and budgeted Capex. So, to know whether the demand triggers new expansions and thus capital demand as well as the resulting operational expenses (Opex), we really need to look at the supply side. That is what our current mobile network can offer. When it cannot provide a targeted level of quality, how much capacity do we have to add to the network to be on a given level of service quality.

The cost of spectrum affects connectivity. High spectrum prices are linked to lower network coverage and lower download speeds, impacting political and social goals such as digital inclusion. Spectrum costs today are 7% of operators’ revenues.  This Global Spectrum Pricing study shows trends in spectrum pricing since 2014 and their impact on consumer and enterprise connectivity. 

The latest report from the GSMA highlights a financial burden faced by mobile operators that may hinder the advancement of mobile networks. While consumers are enjoying significantly reduced costs for mobile services—down by 38% compared to a decade ago—operators have not been as fortunate. Their earnings per gigabyte of data have plummeted by 96% from 2014 to 2024, revealing a concerning gap between revenue and operational costs.

The cost of mobile data varies worldwide, shaping digital access and opportunities. Explore how markets impact the global digital landscape.