Global Scans · Telecoms · Weekly Summary

• [New] The first-ever underwater telecommunications link across the Caspian Sea will connect Aktau and Sumqayit, creating a new digital corridor between Central Asia, the South Caucasus and Europe. The Astana Times
• [New] Replacing telecoms kit supplied by so-called high-risk vendors could cost European telcos €40 billion ($45.5 billion), with additional impacts on network performance and future investment plans. theregister
• [New] New generative AI use cases could unlock $60 billion to $100 billion of impact across telecom, and that operators harnessing AI end to end can lift EBITDA and return on invested capital by as much as 10 percentage points within five years. Tommaso Maria Ricci
• [New] Starlink could enhance Taiwan's telecommunications resilience amid possible PRC efforts to disrupt Taiwan's communications infrastructure. American Enterprise Institute - AEI
• [New] Huawei's role in shaping regional telecom standards could enable China to establish alternative payment and data pathways to skirt Western oversight. Hudson Institute
• [New] Organizations that must retain SMS or voice authentication for operational reasons will be able to select, configure, and manage a third-party telecom provider through the Microsoft Security Store, a partner marketplace. Forrester
• [New] As telecom operators increasingly migrate toward standalone 5G architectures through 2026-2028, demand for next-generation DSP SoCs optimized for low-latency signal processing is expected to rise substantially. Persistence Market Research
• [New] Global 5G subscriptions are expected to exceed 6.4 billion by 2031, accelerating investments in advanced telecom network equipment. Persistence Market Research
• [New] SK Telecom, in South Korea, built a proprietary large language model trained on its telecom-specific data assets and embedded it into an enterprise AI agent platform, now targeting US$ 3.5 billion in AI-related annual revenues by 2030. PwC
• [New] Japanese technology conglomerate Softbank Group Corp. and its telecommunications subsidiary SoftBank Corp. are planning to launch a new neocloud business in the U.S. that will rent access to artificial intelligence chips to hyperscalers and other businesses in need of compute resources. SiliconANGLE
• [New] There could be a global shortfall of 85 million workers by 2030 if current hiring trends continue with the technology media and telecommunications sector facing some of the most severe shortages. Market Data Forecast
• [New] The Federal Communications Commission has proposed barring American and other telecommunications carriers operating in the U.S. from interconnecting with China Unicom, China Mobile, China Telecom and others, saying they pose national security risks. Reuters
• [New] The UK government recently committed additional funding toward advanced connectivity technologies, 5G infrastructure, and telecom innovation, creating new long-term growth opportunities for companies including BT Group. Spherical Insights
• For telecoms operators, Ofcom has identified agentic AI as a potential use case for network optimization and maintenance - envisaging systems that dynamically adjust network parameters within pre-defined guardrails. Osborne Clarke
• Global investments in AI infrastructure and advanced telecom systems are increasing demand for high-capacity digital networks, supporting long-term growth opportunities for telecom operators including Vodafone. Spherical Insights
• The deployment of 5G infrastructure, with the International Telecommunication Union projecting 4.4 billion 5G connections globally by 2027, is simultaneously expanding demand for GaN-on-sapphire RF power amplifiers used in base station antenna arrays. Persistence Market Research
• Some of the numbers that are in the registration statement are very ambitious or sort of aggrandized, in terms of they might soak up all telecom spending globally. Morningstar, Inc.
• In Japan, the telecom arm has been running a beta version of its GPU cloud service since May, which it will leverage to support the U.S. rollout. Morningstar, Inc.

Last updated: 03 August 2026