TWIT - The Week In Telecom #2

It’s been a quiet week for me, convalescing from my post-MWC respiratory syndrome. A big chunk of my time has been taken up with the TM Forum Excellence Awards. I am head judge for three categories and so have had to evaluate 37 entries on 5 dimensions: Significance of the challenge addressed; Innovation; Impact; Scale; Use of ODA and contribution of learnings back to the industry. It’s a lot of work!

Nvidia lines up AI Grid as Orange CTO echoes the AI-RAN doubts

Bandied about at Nvidia's cult-like GTC gathering in San Jose this week, AI Grid marks the chip leviathan's latest attempt to crack a telecom market that so far has shown limited serious interest in its AI-RAN pitch, writes Light Reading.

Meta is killing off the VR version of its metaverse

The VR edition of the metaverse app – originally billed by Meta as the dawning of a new era in online interactive experiences – will be pulled from the Quest store at the end of the month. As Telecoms.com notes, “No matter how Meta pitches it though, reducing Horizon Worlds to little more than a Roblox alternative is far, far removed from the vision of a virtual utopia that CEO Mark Zuckerberg shared when he changed his company's name from Facebook.”

Nokia rebuilds its optical engine, one building block at a time

Nokia said its building-block approach to optical engine development promises to end the industry's one-size-fits-all era. The Infinera acquisition made it possible, but AI-obsessed hyperscalers made it necessary, writes Light Reading.

Omdia Telecom roundup

Here’s a selection of interesting reports published by my Omdia telecom colleagues this week:

·         Reshuffling OSS/BSS: How AI will reshape the telco software industry. This report aims to help telecom professionals to see beneath surface level AI adoption and evaluate where constraints and power are moving in telco OSS/BSS in the era of Generative AI and agentic AI.

·         5G-Advanced Consumer Monetization, 2026: Last year’s report focused on China. While China Mobile continues to lead in innovation, our latest report includes case studies on Ooredoo Kuwait, Zain Kuwait, Zain KSA, Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, and Brisanet.

·         The Future of Consumer Mobile Pricing – 2035: The evolution of 6G consumer pricing will prioritize incremental adjustments rather than a complete transformation.

·         How Neoclouds Use the Internet - Where AI Interconnects: Neoclouds are heavyweight users of the public Internet. Many Neocloud networks look unfit for sovereign AI. Top-end Neoclouds are going private.

·         B2B Pricing Strategies - D2D Satellite for Business: The value proposition for D2D satellite in the business segment is centered on off-the-grid scenarios—safety and emergency services, areas with no regular coverage, and outdoor or wilderness environments. These limited use cases explain why we forecast telco B2B revenue for D2D will be less than $1bn by 2030, compared with the broader enterprise mobile 5G opportunity of $178bn.

·         MWC 2026 takeaways - Radio Access Networks: AI-RAN was the main theme - AI in the RAN, AI for the RAN, AI-and-RAN (particularly NVIDIA’s), AI in baseband and radios, AI in the RAN management (RIC), etc. Other themes included radio innovation, open-source initiatives (e.g., Open Centralized Unit Distributed Unit), and 6G.

·         MWC 2026 takeaways - Core networks: Operational efficiency remains a high priority; operators are exploring agentic AI for network autonomy; by embedding AI at its core, 6G aims to enable autonomous decision-making, real-time adaptability, and unparalleled efficiency.

·         Sovereignty takes center stage at MWC 2026 Barcelona: AI unsurprisingly dominated the halls and conversations at MWC 2026, but “sovereignty” emerged as the other defining theme. It shaped both briefings and keynotes alike, yet it remains a term in search of a consensus definition.

·         Sovereign AI Infrastructure - SK Telecom rethinks its cloud tech stack to address GPU monetization: SKT has rolled out sovereign AI infrastructure for South Korea, called Haein Cluster. This article highlights SKT’s end-to-end stack that addresses the critical challenges of sovereignty and infrastructure optimization for AI.

·         MWC 26 - The 6G business case strengthens, yet lacks mass-market appeal: The industry has reaffirmed that 6G is expected to become commercially available between 2029 and 2030. However, the 6G business case still lacks a strong mass-market appeal from a consumer standpoint.

·         AT&T’s investment strategy diverges from Verizon and T-Mobile US: AT&T announced a commitment to invest $250bn into its network over the next five years in March, signaling an increase in both capex and network opex. By contrast, Verizon and T-Mobile are both focusing on cost optimization and expect flat or declining capex.

·         Global Enterprise Network Services Forecast – 2H25 Analysis Update: from 2026–30, combining core and managed fixed network services (in constant currency), the global market is expected to grow at a 0.3% CAGR.