The agile telco needs frameworks, standards and a lively ecosystem to succeed. Antony Savvas looks at some of the latest developments that can help drive this success.
Revamped networks need investment, and that seems to be happening. After two consecutive years of declining telecoms equipment investments, the pendulum is beginning to shift.
Aggregate worldwide telecoms equipment revenues across broadband access, microwave and optical transport, mobile core networks, radio access networks, and service provider routers and switches increased by 4% year-on-year in the first half of this year, says analyst house Dell’Oro Group.
Market conditions “improved markedly” outside of China, the analyst added, with revenues increasing 8% in the first half. Worldwide telecoms equipment revenues are expected to grow 2% to 3% for the full 2025, compared to the flat outlook Dell’Oro Group predicted last year.
Not lost in space
In addition, Juniper Research has found that global satellite provider revenue from fixed satellite broadband will increase from US$10 billion in 2025 to US$20 billion in 2030. In this key telecoms growth market, revenue will be enabled by rapid investment in low earth orbit (LEO) technology, which allows satellite providers to improve the latency they offer, whilst also reducing costs for satellite launches.
“Historically, fixed satellite broadband has been limited to affluent regions, such as North America, owing to the premium cost of access,” says Alex Webb, senior research analyst at Juniper Research. “However, our research indicates that this global growth will be driven by emerging markets, such as India and Indonesia, over the next five years, with enterprises and consumers in these countries increasingly demanding reliable, high-end broadband.”
To capitalise, Juniper Research says satellite providers must partner with mobile network operators, internet service providers and other communication service providers to resell services, to quickly build trust with customers and exploit the existing billing relationships that exist in the connectivity market.
Special agents
Ericsson says it is advancing its cloud connectivity platform by “being the first enterprise 5G vendor to integrate agentic AI technology”.
The agentic framework within it NetCloud offering will serve as a “powerful enabler” for autonomous “self-optimising” 5G enterprise networks, simplifying deployment and management, and breaking down barriers to private 5G adoption, says Ericsson.
As part of the move, the provider is rolling out a 5G agentic AI “virtual expert” that will “transform” how businesses deploy, optimise and manage their 5G networks in future.
By interpreting “high-level intents”, the “ANA” bot will be able to handle complex workflows, execute administrator decisions and learn in real-time. This reduces burdens for lean IT and OT teams while boosting network reliability and user experience, we are told.
ANA will be supported by multiple orchestrator and functional AI agents capable of planning and executing, with administrator direction. Orchestrator agents will be deployed in phases, starting with a troubleshooting agent planned this quarter, followed by configuration, deployment, and policy agents planned in 2026. These orchestrators will connect with task, process, knowledge and decision agents within an integrated agentic framework.
ANA’s troubleshooting orchestrator will include automated workflows that address the top issues identified by Ericsson support teams, partners, and customers, such as offline devices and poor signal quality. This feature is expected to reduce downtime and customer support cases by “over 20%”.
“By introducing agentic AI into NetCloud, we’re enabling enterprises to simplify deployment and operations while also improving reliability, performance and user experience,” says Pankaj Malhotra, the head of WWAN and security, Ericsson Enterprise Wireless Solutions. “More importantly, it lays the foundation for our vision of fully autonomous, self-optimising 5G enterprise networks, that can power the next generation of enterprise innovation.”
Free space optics
Taara and StarTouch aim to bring free space optics (FSO) across the US. FSO, the use of end-to-end laser optics through the air, has been a technology available to deliver connectivity in hard-to-reach areas for decades, but hasn’t exactly widely caught on.
Taara’s Lightbridge technology has been used by operators in both urban and rural geographies, across rivers, railways and rugged terrain to reach remote communities, where cables can’t be easily laid.
Now, through its collaboration with StarTouch, Taara will offer the same service to manufacturing, automotive, retail, education and other enterprise areas, where deployment speed and network resilience are increasingly important.
Lightbridge will allow StarTouch to augment its hybrid network of licensed microwave and fibre infrastructure, to offer its enterprise, public sector and carrier customers fibre-like speeds wirelessly and “true route diversity” in a “fraction of the time”.
Taara links achieve 20 Gbps bidirectional throughput with “ultra-low latency”, even over distances of up to 20km. The laser units weigh just 13kg and it can be installed or redeployed by a single technician in just a few hours.
Operating in unlicensed spectrum avoids lengthy licensing processes and eliminates recurring spectrum fees, while the small form factor reduces tower rental costs and lowers energy consumption. As with all niche connectivity services, deployment and running costs will be key, but maybe FSO’s time has come?
Antony Savvas