The final week of 2025 reinforces several strategic themes that will define the telecommunications landscape in 2026: network slicing is transitioning from trials to commercial reality, 5G standalone deployments are enabling advanced capabilities, and the industry’s technology architecture debates remain unresolved. Meanwhile, enterprise applications continue to drive network evolution, and non-terrestrial networks are moving from novelty to necessity.
The commercialisation of 5G network slicing reached a significant milestone this week, with Verizon Business launching Fixed Wireless Access on a dedicated network slice. This deployment addresses a critical enterprise need: enhanced uplink capacity for AI-driven workloads. The timing is strategic, as all three major US operators now operate 5G standalone cores, removing the technical barrier that has long constrained network slicing deployment.
Germany is emerging as Europe’s network slicing laboratory, with both Deutsche Telekom and Vodafone offering differentiated services across consumer and enterprise segments. Deutsche Telekom’s gaming-focused slices and Vodafone’s private network offerings demonstrate different monetisation approaches to the same underlying capability. These early commercial implementations will provide crucial market validation data for operators worldwide considering similar services.
The industry consensus points to 2026 as the year network slicing moves from controlled trials to scaled deployment, with service differentiation and quality guarantees becoming standard offerings rather than experimental features.
The Global mobile Suppliers Association reports that at least 85 operators across 47 markets launched commercial 5G standalone networks in 2025, representing the critical mass needed to unlock advanced features. This infrastructure foundation is enabling RedCap device deployment and non-terrestrial network integration, capabilities that were theoretical possibilities in earlier 5G phases.
Viettel’s achievement of 90% outdoor coverage across Vietnam with 20,000 5G sites demonstrates the pace of standalone deployment in emerging markets. The operator’s end-to-end SA network, supported by Ericsson, positions Vietnam ahead of several developed markets in 5G infrastructure maturity. Rakuten Mobile’s milestone of 10 million subscribers in Japan further validates the viability of cloud-native, fully virtualised network architectures at scale.
The infrastructure is now in place; the challenge shifts to developing services and applications that justify the investment.
Open RAN endured what Light Reading characterises as “multiple blows” in 2025, with key proponents including Mavenir and EchoStar revising their strategies. The technology’s struggle to gain meaningful market share against incumbent vendors raises fundamental questions about whether the promised benefits of vendor diversity and cost reduction can be realised in practice. While complete abandonment seems unlikely given government support in key markets, the vision of a truly open, multi-vendor RAN ecosystem appears increasingly distant.
Simultaneously, the AI-RAN discussion intensifies around whether GPU deployment in base stations is economically viable. The debate centres on finding the optimal balance between GPUs and next-generation CPUs for RAN compute requirements. As networks increasingly rely on AI for optimisation and efficiency, this architectural decision will significantly influence both capital and operational expenditure over the next deployment cycle.
FWA continued its growth trajectory in 2025, with major US carriers on track to add millions of subscribers and cable operators facing sustained competitive pressure. However, the mismatch between network traffic consumption and FWA service revenue remains unresolved. Operators are effectively arbitraging their existing network capacity, but questions persist about long-term capacity adequacy as subscriber numbers scale and usage patterns evolve.
The FWA model’s sustainability depends on whether operators can maintain acceptable service quality whilst adding subscribers at current rates, or whether capacity constraints will eventually require either service degradation or significant additional infrastructure investment.
Satellite integration with terrestrial 5G networks transitioned from experimental concept to mainstream strategic consideration in 2025. The industry increasingly views satellites not as alternative infrastructure but as a resilience layer and coverage extension for hybrid networks. The direct-to-device market gained momentum through new service launches and partnerships, though commercial viability at scale remains to be demonstrated.
Ookla’s identification of network resilience as a major investment theme for 2026, with satellites playing a crucial role, signals that operators are moving beyond simple coverage economics to consider network availability and redundancy as competitive differentiators.
Private 5G networking developments, including Nokia’s strategic refocusing on mission-critical networks, reflect the enterprise market’s maturation. Verizon’s provision of 5G connectivity for Kodiak AI’s autonomous trucking operations exemplifies how enterprise applications are driving network capability requirements. These deployments demand consistent performance, low latency, and guaranteed capacity that standard mobile services cannot reliably provide.
Network APIs reached what industry observers describe as an inflection point in 2025, with standardisation through initiatives like GSMA’s CAMARA gaining traction. Revenue forecasts for the network API market reaching billions of dollars by 2030 depend on whether operators can successfully expose network capabilities to developers and enterprises in commercially viable ways.
The successful demonstration of ultra-low latency capabilities by Ericsson, T-Mobile, and Qualcomm indicates the technical feasibility of supporting demanding enterprise applications, but translating technical capability into commercial services remains the challenge.
Malaysia’s significant 5G performance degradation whilst awaiting deployment of a second wholesale network demonstrates the limitations of single-operator models. As demand increased on Digital Nasional Berhad’s network, speed decline was inevitable, highlighting how infrastructure architecture decisions have direct performance consequences. The situation serves as a cautionary example for other markets considering similar wholesale approaches.
Claro Peru and Huawei’s deployment of the world’s first commercial EcoMatrix site represents a different approach: highly integrated, energy-efficient solutions optimised for multi-band deployment. These infrastructure efficiency improvements matter increasingly as operators balance performance requirements against operational cost pressures.
5G SA growth one of ‘key dynamics’ in 2025 – GSA Global mobile Suppliers Association reports on the momentum behind 5G standalone deployments across 47 markets, enabling advanced capabilities including RedCap and non-terrestrial networks. https://www.telecomtv.com/content/5g/5g-sa-growth-one-of-key-dynamics-in-2025-gsa-54571/
It’s game on for 5G network slicing in Germany Deutsche Telekom and Vodafone Germany lead European commercialisation of 5G network slicing with differentiated services for consumers and enterprises, providing early market validation data. https://www.lightreading.com/5g/it-s-game-on-for-5g-network-slicing-in-germany
2025 in review: Open RAN dealt multiple blows Analysis of Open RAN’s challenging year as key proponents revised strategies and the technology struggled to gain market share against incumbent vendors, raising questions about the multi-vendor ecosystem vision. https://www.lightreading.com/open-ran/2025-in-review-open-ran-dealt-multiple-blows
2025 – a turning point for satellites in telecoms Examination of how non-terrestrial networks integrated with terrestrial 5G moved from experimental concept to mainstream strategic consideration, with satellites increasingly viewed as resilience and coverage layers. https://www.telecoms.com/satellite/key-non-terrestrial-network-developments-in-2025
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