This week saw a European operator handing back millimetre wave licences it could not put to work and fresh debate over what counts as efficient use of the airwaves. The march towards 6G gathered pace around Qualcomm’s Leadership Day and a live 6 GHz trial in Spain, while network slicing moved from slideware to a consumer proposition in the UK. There was plenty on private networks, security and non-terrestrial connectivity too, and Africa’s operators kept the deployment stories coming.
The week’s most telling spectrum story came from Spain, where Vodafone formally handed back its 26 GHz holdings to the state, citing a lack of viable use for the band. It is a candid admission that millimetre wave has yet to find its business case in much of Europe, and a useful data point for regulators weighing how to structure future high-band awards. The question of whether valuable spectrum is being left fallow ran through the week. Writing for Light Reading, analyst Dean Bubley argued that if regulators want to apply an efficient use test to shared and unlicensed bands such as CBRS, the same yardstick should be held against the lightly used licensed spectrum that mobile operators sit on across rural America.
Telecom Review picked up the same theme from a policy angle, arguing that spectrum’s greatest value in the 6G era may lie well beyond the headline auction receipts, in the economic activity that well-designed licensing unlocks rather than the one-off cheque to the treasury. In the United States, the FCC gave its blessing to a rural wireless innovation zone, creating room to test new deployment models where commercial coverage is thin. India, meanwhile, is weighing a rip-and-replace of legacy Chinese telecoms equipment still running in its networks, a move with clear cost and security implications that operators across the region will be watching closely.
MasOrange and Ericsson ran a live test of the 6 GHz band in Spain, one of the leading candidates for future 6G capacity, validating advanced antenna techniques that could sharply increase network capacity while supporting AI-driven services and automation. The trial gives the upper 6 GHz debate a concrete reference point as the industry argues over how the band should be split between mobile and Wi-Fi.
Much of the strategic thinking came out of Qualcomm’s 6G Leadership Day, where the message ran from spectrum policy through to silicon and smart glasses. The recurring theme was that 6G will not arrive as a standalone leap so much as a convergence of connectivity, sensing and AI-native devices. Omdia’s Gabriel Brown unpacked the same event on the Signal Strength podcast, weighing which use cases might actually pay their way and when. A sharper note came from Fierce Network, which argued that engineers have done the hard part of crafting 6G and that the real challenge now falls to the marketers who have to sell it without leaning on the tired next-generation narrative.
Network slicing finally reached the shop window in the UK. VodafoneThree launched SuperMobile, a tiered 5G standalone slicing portfolio spanning consumers, enterprises and critical services, and backed it with a guarantee of minimum speeds of 15Mb/s or customers can leave without penalty. It is one of the first mainstream consumer propositions built explicitly on slicing, and the operator did not shy away from framing it as a direct challenge to BT’s equivalent offering. Whether buyers will pay a premium for a speed guarantee is the open question, but the move turns slicing from a technical capability into a commercial test.
Standalone coverage widened elsewhere too. Virgin Media O2 switched on 5G standalone in Northern Ireland, extending the technology’s footprint across the UK, while in the United States Optimum said it will start using T-Mobile’s 5G standalone core for its mobile service, giving its customers a broader device range and improved international roaming.
Deutsche Telekom and Ericsson deployed a private 5G network at Hamburg’s Container Terminal Altenwerder, the latest step in a seven-year effort to prove out industrial cellular in a working port. It is a strong reference case for 5G in logistics, where reliability and coverage across a large outdoor site have long tested the technology. Orange, meanwhile, deepened its sovereign connectivity play by acquiring the Dome private 5G core from domestic firm Obvios, aiming the platform at defence, public safety and critical infrastructure customers who want a network they can keep firmly under national control.
Regulation shaped the picture in China, where government agencies floated yet another plan to spur private 5G in industrial settings. As Light Reading noted, the ambition is familiar but the spectrum to make it happen is still nowhere to be seen, a reminder that policy intent and allocated bandwidth are not the same thing.
A striking piece of research showed AI agents finding dozens of previously unknown flaws in 4G and 5G cores. The finding underlines why operators and vendors can no longer treat internal network interfaces as inherently trustworthy, and it points to a future where automated tooling is used both to probe and to defend the core. For a sector moving towards standalone architectures and open interfaces, it is a timely prompt to revisit assumptions about what sits safely behind the perimeter.
Ericsson and Saudi operator Mobily signed a memorandum of understanding to trial AI applications across the operator’s radio access network, using rApps on Ericsson’s automation platform as a step towards more autonomous operations. The deal fits a broader industry argument, aired again this week, that AI in the RAN could turn a permanent cost centre into a source of value rather than just an efficiency play. Expect more of these exploratory pacts as vendors look to prove the economics before operators commit at scale.
SoftBank completed a stratospheric HAPS trial and set its sights on deployment in 2027, positioning high-altitude platforms as a layer between terrestrial masts and satellites. The pitch is that a single platform could combine wide-area cellular, private networks, drone connectivity and edge computing, rather than simply filling coverage gaps. Telecom Review Africa took the wider view, arguing that low-Earth-orbit constellations have shifted from a niche backup to a core part of how operators now plan coverage, a change with real consequences for spectrum coordination and network architecture.
MTN Nigeria launched FlyX, a 5G fixed wireless service aimed at homes and small businesses in areas where fibre has yet to reach, using an outdoor unit to capture the 5G signal and an indoor unit to share it over Wi-Fi. It is a practical use of 5G to close the broadband gap where trenching fibre is uneconomic. In Botswana, the incumbent BTC signalled it is close to a 5G launch, earmarking more than 17.8 million US dollars for network upgrades in the coming financial year. Safaricom Ethiopia, meanwhile, passed 15 million active subscribers five years after winning its licence, a milestone that shows how quickly a greenfield entrant can scale when the market opens up. Telecom Review Africa also made the commercial case for millimetre wave, arguing that high-band investment can start to earn its keep as enterprise and fixed wireless use cases mature.
Vodafone Spain hands back 26 GHz spectrum for lack of use
A rare, candid signal from a major operator that millimetre wave still lacks a business case in much of Europe.
https://www.mobileworldlive.com/spanish/vodafone-espana-devuelve-al-estado-las-frecuencias-de-5g-de-26-ghz-por-falta-de-uso/
If CBRS is wasted spectrum, what do you call rural 5G?
Dean Bubley turns the efficient use argument back on the licensed bands operators leave fallow across rural America.
https://www.lightreading.com/regulatory-politics/if-cbrs-is-wasted-spectrum-what-do-you-call-rural-5g-
VodafoneThree declares 5G network slicing war on BT
The first mainstream consumer slicing proposition in the UK, complete with a speed guarantee, and a test of whether buyers will pay for it.
https://www.lightreading.com/5g/vodafonethree-declares-5g-network-slicing-war-on-bt
AI agents expose 5G core security risks for telecom operators
New research showing automated agents uncovering dozens of unknown flaws in 4G and 5G cores, with real implications for standalone architectures.
https://www.fierce-network.com/wireless/ai-agents-expose-5g-core-security-risks-telecom-operators
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