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AvidThink 2025 June Newsletter

AvidThink 2025 June Update

To our readers in the United States, hope you had a good 4th of July break and hope everyone else in the Northern Hemisphere are taking some time off during the summer.

NextGenInfra “En Route To” Series

We’ve had a number of inquiries on our En Route To Series (launched at RSAC) from companies in different geographies. Unfortunately, the series is currently limited to San Francisco. We’re open to using other self-driving services besides Waymo but that’s been the most convenient. As self-driving services become more available, we’ll expand geographic coverage. When Tesla Robotaxis are feasible, we’ll do a couple of interviews in those. In the meantime, if you haven’t yet, check out our En Route To series on the NextGenInfra Channel on YouTube.

Here’s what the rest of our newsletter has in store for you:

  • Roy’s Travelogue — Cisco Live US, TMForum DTW 2025, T-Mobile Press and Analyst Event

  • Latest Reports — AI in the Mobile RAN

  • Recent Articles— AI in Cybersecurity (3-part blog)

  • NextGenInfra — Fiber Connect 2025 En Route To

  • June News Roundup — DOJ approves HPE Juniper tie-up, Amazon Kuiper doubles number of satellites launched (from a small number), Mavenir receives new lease on life and more

  • Other Content — AvidThink in the News, Webinars, Meet Us Live

Stay tuned for our upcoming reports launching late Summer/early Fall — updated edition of AI in Networking (can you say agentic), private wireless, SASE/ZTNA, and more!

Roy’s Travelogue

I closed out our Spring conference season with a quick trip to San Diego to catch up with friends at Cisco Live US, followed by Copenhagen for TMForum DTW Ignite, with a stopover in Seattle/Bellevue on my way home for a T-Mobile press and analyst event. Meanwhile, our media partner, Jim Carroll, was present at the Sphere in Las Vegas during HPE Discover. I’m looking forward to no travel till mid-August, when the Fall conference season starts up again.

Cisco Live US 2025 showcased AI, AI, and more AI, including Agentic AI (of course). Cisco’s AI Canvas offers a generative AI dashboard that enables NetOps, SecOps, and DevOps teams to collaborate. Meanwhile, AgenticOps, utilizing its domain-specific Deep Network Model, aims to reduce network operations overhead dramatically. Other advancements that caught my eye included the unification of Meraki and Catalyst management, incorporating ThousandEyes for assurance and improved visibility, as well as Splunk for full-stack insights. The same unification theme was also evident on the unified Nexus dashboard. Jeetu Patel (President and Chief Product Officer) is pushing hard for the streamlining and consolidation of overlapping product lines. The revamp has been long overdue, and product fragmentation has been a pain point for customers and the channel. Unsurprisingly, Cisco also showcased universal ZTNA and its Hypershield framework across more devices and domains, with acceleration assistance from silicon on switches. Cisco hasn’t been able to capture the data center networking market for AI training as effectively as NVIDIA, and lacks Arista’s focus and efficiency. On the campus networking (particularly Wi-Fi), it has lagged behind Juniper Mist. With the HPE acquisition of Juniper already underway, Cisco will face more formidable competition once integration is complete. The cleanup on the product lines, redoubled efforts on AI-powered operations, reinvigoration of security, and continued investment in silicon, if executed well, can help Cisco recapture some of those glory days.

DTW Ignite took place again in sunny Copenhagen — a wonderful place to visit in June, featuring bright/white nights, when the sun sets past 10 pm and rises at 4 am. We analysts were treated to yet another barrage of Agentic AI, even if some vendors redefined ‘agentic’ for their convenience or ‘agentic-washed’ existing offerings. Nevertheless, the rise of LLMs that can perform some reasoning (via inference-time scaling) brings hope to those of us seeking to achieve levels 4 and 5 of network autonomy. We’re not there yet, but I’m seeing sparks of level 4+ capability across different Catalysts on the show floor. One thing I appreciate, especially in our increasingly polarized world, is that the TMForum event brings together operators and vendors from both the East and West on relatively neutral ground. I enjoy seeing Catalysts that are the product of such collaborations.

(Photos L-R: DTW Ignite Catalyst Awards Stage; with Carsten Rossenhoevel of EANTC; T-Mobile’s exec team at press event: Ulf Ewaldsson, Srini Gopalan, Mike Katz, Mike Sievert; Mike Katz discussing T-Satellite)

En route home, I extended my transit in Seattle to an overnight stay (paid for by T-Mobile). I joined press members and analysts at a T-Mobile press event announcing their recognition by Ookla as America’s best network, as measured across 500 million data points using real-world user-application interaction metrics. More interesting to me was the public launch of their T-Satellite service (available July 13), which provides messaging (text, images) to T-Mobile subscribers. A $10/month service option is also available for non-T-Mobile subscribers to use the service. This direct-to-device service, which supports a wide range of modern phones, will also provide data services for selected applications starting in October. I’m looking forward to trying out the data service to see what apps are supported and the quality of experience.

For now, I’m glad to have a 6-week break with no travel. In the meantime, we’ll be hard at work on upcoming reports, including our super popular AI in Networking report (2025 edition), SASE/ZTNA, private wireless, and more. If anyone is interested in supporting those reports with a sponsorship, you know how to reach us.

– Roy for the AvidThink Team

Latest at NextGenInfra.io

2025 June News Roundup

6G

T-Mobile Executive Predicts 6G Deployment by 2030 with Revolutionary Capabilities
T-Mobile US CTO Ulf Ewaldsson announced at DTW Ignite that 6G networks will be deployed by 2030, delivering 100 times more data capacity with sub-millisecond latency. The intent-based networks will use AI to function as a “personal valet,” while China Mobile’s Li Huidi highlighted integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) capabilities for environmental mapping, with 50,000 5G-Advanced sites already deployed.

3GPP Sets 2029 Timeline for First 6G Specification Release
The 3GPP standards body expects to finalize the first 6G specification in 2029 as part of Release 21, with commercial launches beginning in 2030. Comprehensive 6G studies started in Prague and will conclude by Q1 2027.

NGMN Alliance Calls for Realistic 6G Framework to Avoid 5G Pitfalls
Major operators including Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone, Orange, MTN, and Telefonica urged 3GPP to create a harmonized global 6G standard that builds on 5G capabilities while avoiding operational issues. The NGMN Alliance emphasized the need for evolutionary transition without complete hardware overhaul.

5G

Elisa Achieves 8 Gbps Download Speeds on 5G Standalone Network
Finnish operator Elisa partnered with Ericsson and MediaTek to demonstrate 8 Gbps download speeds using carrier aggregation technology on its 5G SA network. The achievement utilized six-component and 12-component carrier variants combined with MediaTek’s M90 5G modem.

China Telecom and Huawei Introduce Intelligent Ultra Pooling Uplink Technology
The companies developed new 5G-Advanced technology targeting smart wearables, connected vehicles (V2X), and AI assistants through user network (UCN) architecture and AI-driven resource management. Intelligent Ultra Pooling Uplink reduces delays by over 30%, increases uplink speeds by more than 15%, and boosts cell edge performance by an additional 15%.

VodafoneThree Plans Massive 5G SA Expansion Across UK
The merged operator announced plans to expand 5G SA coverage to 17 million additional people within a year and reach 90% UK population by 2028. With $15 billion allocated for near-nationwide 5G SA deployment over eight years, VodafoneThree aims to challenge BT’s market position while enabling cross-network roaming between Vodafone and Three customers.

Ericsson Launches Cloud-Native 5G Core Service with Google Cloud
Ericsson On-Demand enables operators to run user plane functions on Google Cloud infrastructure, reducing capital expenditure and infrastructure management overhead. The service represents a “network-native” approach in Google’s environment, allowing operators to pay only for consumed resources rather than maintaining on-premises hardware and software.

Huawei Showcases AI-Powered 5G-Advanced Monetization at MWC Shanghai
Huawei presented multiple 5G-A monetization strategies powered by AI agents and launched an AI ultra-broadband solution with built-in computing power for enhanced AI application experiences. Collaborating with China’s three major carriers, the vendor demonstrated best practices for home broadband and wireless solutions, with commercial 5G-A adoption expected to accelerate in 2025 across China, Middle East, and Asia-Pacific regions.

Orange Group Deploys 5G Network Slicing Across Europe with Ericsson
Orange is leveraging Ericsson’s Service Orchestration and Assurance platform to deploy 5G network slicing services across European affiliates by 2025. The initiative supports Orange’s 5G SA expansion goals, with deployments already active in Belgium, Spain, France, and Romania’s Danube Delta region.

Chinese Operators Add 235,000 5G Base Stations in First Five Months of 2025
China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology reported the addition brought total 5G base stations to nearly 4.5 million, representing 35.3% of all base stations nationwide. China Mobile plans to add 340,000 5G base stations this year, increasing its total to 2.8 million stations across the world’s largest mobile network by subscriber count.

Cloud

Metro Ethernet Forum Rebrands as Mplify Alliance to Expand Mission
The 20-year-old organization changed its name to reflect expanded focus on global network and service innovation, interoperability, and resilience while continuing carrier Ethernet standardization. Under CEO Nan Chen and COO Kevin Vachon, Mplify aims to attract broader membership including enterprises, service providers, cloud providers, data center operators, technology providers, and systems integrators.

Google Cloud Targets Telco Networks as Operators Face Financial Pressures
Global head of telecom Angelo Libertucci identified operator challenges including high capex, lower ARPU, and increased competition as drivers for public cloud adoption beyond traditional analytics and IT systems. Google’s partnership with Deutsche Telekom on RAN Guardian agentic AI demonstrates autonomous network operations capabilities, with operators increasingly willing to host network functions in public cloud infrastructure.

Microsoft Enhances EU Cloud Services for Data Sovereignty Compliance
Microsoft’s EU Data Boundary initiative across Microsoft 365, Azure, Dynamics 365, and Power Platform ensures European personnel approval, monitoring, and logging of all remote access to Europe-based data systems. The sovereign public cloud enters general availability this year, with private sovereign cloud for governments and regulated sectors also in preview.

Vultr Secures $329 Million Credit Facility for AI-Driven GPU Expansion
The alternative cloud provider obtained financing from J.P. Morgan, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citi, Goldman Sachs, and KeyBank, adding to $333 million raised last year. Unlike neoclouds that build data centers, Vultr leases space and offers broader cloud services beyond GPUs.

Networking

DOJ Approves HPE’s $14 Billion Juniper Networks Acquisition with Conditions
The Department of Justice required HPE to divest its Instant On Wi-Fi business within 180 days and auction up to two Juniper Mist AI source code licenses to maintain WLAN market competition. The conditions address concerns about HPE and Cisco potentially controlling 70% of the WLAN market, with potential bidders including Amazon, Extreme Networks, Arista, Fortinet, and Palo Alto Networks.

APIs

GSMA and TM Forum Launch Unified API Certification Program
The partnership creates single conformance certification for GSMA Open Gateway and CAMARA Service APIs, reducing complexity and costs while accelerating monetization for operators. The program addresses previous lack of verification between TM Forum Operate APIs and CAMARA Service APIs, with Open Gateway now including 73 mobile operator groups since its 2023 launch.

Open RAN

Mavenir Restructures with $300 Million Financing, Pivots from Hardware Manufacturing
The company eliminated over $1.3 billion in debt through recapitalization with Siris and lenders, shifting focus from radio hardware manufacturing to design partnerships with ODM manufacturers. Mavenir will prioritize AI as a key growth area while maintaining its 4,000-person workforce, moving away from the financial uncertainty that plagued its open RAN development efforts.

Tejas Networks Partners with Rakuten Symphony for Integrated Open RAN Service
The Tata Group company will combine Rakuten Symphony’s cloud-native software, distributed/centralized units, OSS, and cloud portfolio with Tejas Networks’ 4G and 5G radio equipment. CTO Kumar Sivarajan emphasized the integration of RAN infrastructure with Rakuten’s orchestration platform and cloud-native software capabilities.

AT&T Expands Rakuten Symphony Partnership for Open RAN Development
Building on their 2022 agreement, AT&T is using Rakuten Site Management to replace legacy custom-built tools and spreadsheets for cell site management, supporting the goal of 70% of 5G network traffic on open hardware by late 2026.

AI

Verizon Integrates Google Gemini AI into Customer Service Platform
The AI-powered Verizon Assistant enables single-contact resolution for upgrades, line additions, and billing inquiries, while “customer champion” agents use Gemini and Google Cloud AI models for complex issues. Following April’s deployment that achieved 96% accuracy in agent assistance and reduced call times, CEO Hans Vestberg emphasized setting new standards for customer innovation through combined people and technology approaches.

HPE Debuts GreenLake Intelligence for Agentic AI Infrastructure Management
HPE’s entry into agentic AI features a network of AI agents accessible through GreenLake Copilot dashboard, analyzing telemetry data from hardware and software components to provide insights and automate actions. CEO Antonio Neri positioned agentic AI as transforming AI from tool to active participant.

Private Networks

Verizon and Nokia Secure Major UK Private 5G Contract for Thames Freeport
The partnership will deploy private 5G across 1,700 acres serving Port of Tilbury (16 million tons annual cargo), Ford Dagenham (London’s largest manufacturing site), and DP World London Gateway logistics facility. The network utilizes Nokia’s Digital Automation Cloud with geo-redundant cores, two MXIE units per site, and Band 77 spectrum (3.8–4.2 GHz), expanding Verizon’s UK smart ports presence beyond Port of Southampton.

Satellite (NTN)

Amazon Launches Second Batch of Project Kuiper Satellites
Amazon deployed 27 additional Project Kuiper satellites via United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket, following April’s initial 27-satellite launch toward the 3,236-satellite constellation goal. The company must deploy half its constellation by July 2026 to meet FCC requirements, competing with SpaceX Starlink, Eutelsat, AST SpaceMobile, and Lynk Global, with over 80 launches planned across multiple providers including SpaceX.

Intelsat Collaborates on Terrestrial-NTN Hybrid Network for Industrial Applications
Partnering with Mavenir and Kratos, Intelsat is developing always-on connectivity combining terrestrial and non-terrestrial networks (NTN) for connected vehicles and remote industrial applications. The solution incorporates 5G SA core with 3GPP Release 19 support for Ku-band satellite connectivity and seamless cellular-satellite handoffs.