MIIT: China's 5G base stations reach 5.254 million as 5G-A extends to counties
China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said at a State Council Information Office briefing on 20 October that the country had 5.254 million 5G base stations by the end of September 2026, with 5G-Advanced coverage extending from core cities to counties and key industrial parks. Gigabit optical networks now have 33.4 million 10G PON ports, and 10-gigabit networks are being piloted in residential communities, factories and industrial parks. Intelligent computing capacity reached 2,592 EFLOPS, up 146% year on year. Telecom service volume grew 7.3% in the first three quarters, and the three basic telecom operators all rank among the world's top ten by revenue. 5G now serves all 97 categories of the national economy, with more than 26,000 industrial 5G private networks and 1,260 5G factories built; two private companies have been approved for commercial satellite IoT trials. MIIT said it will make forward-looking arrangements for 6G technology innovation.
GSA: only 98 operators have launched 5G SA, holding back RedCap
GSA data published on 23 October shows that more than 390 operators worldwide have launched commercial 5G, but only 98 have deployed 5G standalone, meaning SA remains a subset of the wider 5G market. This has constrained 5G RedCap, with just 17 operators having launched services, four of them during 2026, while India's Bharti Airtel and Indonesia's Telkomsel are deploying. For 5G-Advanced, 41 operators are investing and 19 have launched, with Asia-Pacific accounting for 43%. In 5G fixed wireless access, 276 operators have launched commercial services, led by Europe with 108. On private wireless, 2,031 organisations have deployed networks, 1,001 of them (49%) using 5G, with 3.5GHz the most assigned band and manufacturing the strongest sector at 393 companies. Direct-to-device satellite links involve 113 operators across 123 partnerships.
EU awards another EUR 22 million to push 6G, selecting five projects
The body tasked with driving 6G-related development in the European Union has selected five projects to share EUR 22 million in its latest funding round, covering areas including connected devices and improving data quality for AI-native networks. The award continues the EU's approach of using the Horizon framework to fund early-stage 6G research, focusing on foundational capabilities for deep AI-network integration rather than raw air-interface speed alone. The move aligns with the 6G standardisation timeline being advanced by 3GPP and ITU-R, which opened the call for 6G candidate technologies in October.
PHY Wireless and Ubiik blend positioning into private LTE and 5G
PHY Wireless and Ubiik have teamed up to combine private LTE and 5G connectivity with device-based positioning, giving enterprise and industrial users a 3GPP standards-based alternative to proprietary location systems. The offering pairs Ubiik's private LTE/5G infrastructure with PHY's hellaPHY technology so communications and positioning run on a single network, supporting tracking of assets, vehicles and equipment, worker safety and physical AI deployments. Because GPS and Wi-Fi positioning often struggle inside warehouses, containers and factories and drain batteries, hellaPHY computes location on the device rather than in the cloud, cutting network traffic, data costs and power use while improving privacy. The companies claim metre-level accuracy and up to ten times lower device power consumption.
Ericsson expands Singtel and Telstra partnerships, forms 6G research group
Ericsson on 20 October announced expanded partnerships with Singtel and Telstra. A new five-year agreement with Singtel focuses on advancing 5G capabilities in Singapore and accelerating AI-native applications, establishing a longer roadmap for scaling 5G-Advanced and enabling industry AI capabilities. With Telstra, Ericsson is extending an autonomous networks collaboration signed in October 2025, with the next phase focusing on the knowledge, trust and governance foundations needed for greater network autonomy; the two will lead a working group to publish the outcomes. Ericsson also said researchers from Sweden's KTH Royal Institute of Technology and Singapore's Nanyang Technological University will join a 6G research group it coordinates, starting in November to explore how AI and 6G positioning can support safe, secure and reliable autonomous systems.
NAB and Sinclair blast FCC 5G Broadcast rule proposal
The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) and Sinclair are jointly opposing a petition asking the FCC to create a rule letting low-power television (LPTV) stations deploy 5G Broadcast on a voluntary basis. The petitioners are companies tied to Boston station WCRN and HC2, the largest US LPTV operator. The NAB argues the rule is not in the public interest and would fragment the market, noting that ATSC 3.0 is already deployed in 48 of the top 50 US markets, leaving no need for 5G Broadcast. Sinclair called the proposal entirely unnecessary for mobile, pointing to its work with 3GPP and others on the Broadcast-to-Everything (B2X) extension to ATSC 3.0 and questioning whether 5G Broadcast can coexist with existing TV spectrum without harmful interference. Reply comments are due on 18 November.
Anritsu enables Wi-Fi 8 and Bluetooth LE testing on a single platform
Anritsu on 22 October launched new RF characteristics evaluation options for Wi-Fi 8 (IEEE 802.11bn) and Bluetooth Low Energy for its MT8862A Wireless Connectivity Test Set, allowing both wireless technologies to be evaluated on one platform to improve development efficiency and optimise test environments. The options are delivered as software, so existing MT8862A users can expand their test setups without adding a new measurement system. Beyond Wi-Fi 8 and Wi-Fi 7 requirements including 320MHz channel bandwidth and 4096-QAM, the platform supports all three Wi-Fi 6E bands and legacy standards from 802.11a/b/g/n/ac, and offers network-mode measurements under live operating conditions plus over-the-air testing. Wi-Fi 8 is expected to complete formal standardisation in 2028.
Semtech LoRa business hits quarterly record as Amazon Sidewalk expands abroad
Semtech's LoRa business posted record net sales of USD 58 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2027, up 31% sequentially and 58% year on year, with the company guiding to about 15% sequential and 65% year-on-year growth in the third quarter. The growth reflects wider adoption across smart home, security and industrial monitoring, with the fourth-generation LoRa platform supporting higher data rates while retaining low power consumption and long range. After Ring launched a new line of LoRa-based sensors in the US, Amazon Sidewalk is accelerating its international expansion, having reached Canada and Mexico, with Europe, Australia and Japan expected to follow. Semtech expects LoRa revenue growth to exceed its previous 20% benchmark.