China's MIIT grants 6GHz 6G trial spectrum, a world first
China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) has formally approved the use of a contiguous 700MHz block of 6GHz spectrum (6425-7125MHz) for 6G trials, making China the first country to allocate 6G trial frequencies and moving 6G research from theory to live over-the-air testing. China completed Phase 1 of its 6G key technology trials between 2022 and 2025, building more than 300 technical reserves, and has now started Phase 2 technical solution trials. Liu Yulin, director of the MIIT's Information and Communication Development Department, said 6G will be a top priority in the 15th Five-Year Plan, with commercial launch targeted around 2030 and large-scale deployment by 2035, aiming to nurture a trillion-yuan industry.
NTT Docomo lights up Nokia Open RAN base station
NTT Docomo has deployed an Open RAN base station capable of integrating multi-vendor infrastructure, using Nokia's AirScale portfolio and its latest Massive MIMO network optimisation technology, publicly demonstrated at an event on 12 September. Docomo uses Nokia's Levante baseband card for data and the Ponente card for control, connecting third-party radio units and supporting both 4G and 5G traffic. Docomo said the equipment raises the number of connectable devices while cutting power consumption, paving the way to 5G-Advanced and AI-native 6G, and aims to set a deployment blueprint for high-traffic settings such as cities and venues.
Ericsson deploys private 5G at US airport to replace Wi-Fi
Ericsson, with Insight Enterprises and the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport's Metropolitan Airports Commission (MAC), has deployed a private 5G network spanning the indoor and outdoor areas of the airport's five-square-mile campus. MAC had relied on Wi-Fi to carry operational technology including mobile devices and surveillance systems, but Wi-Fi is vulnerable to interference from unmanaged devices and degrades as equipment moves between access points. The new network does not depend on the public network, independently supporting video surveillance, common-use check-in equipment and mobile work tablets, and covering runways, taxiways and gates; the airport plans to extend connectivity to airlines and merchants.
GSMA pushes full upper 6GHz band for mobile, backed by 60+ firms
The GSMA has renewed its call for governments and regulators to assign the full upper 6GHz band (6.425-7.125GHz) to mobile, backed by more than 60 operators, device and chip makers and equipment vendors. The association said several countries covering over 80% of the world's population now support mobile use of the band, have added it to national spectrum roadmaps, and have completed initial assignments. The GSMA argues the entire band should be used for full-power macro cellular service, providing 200-400MHz channels for 5G-Advanced and 6G, and pressed regulators to give operators investment certainty.
Vodafone Spain deploys private 5G for military emergency unit
Vodafone Spain has delivered the first mobile unit equipped with a private 5G network to Spain's Military Emergency Unit (UME) for communications in disaster and high-risk scenarios. The core of the system is a 5G node integrated into UME vehicles, establishing dedicated high-capacity coverage independent of the public network to carry video, images and data in real time during wildfires, floods, earthquakes and snowstorms. It comes with 100 ruggedised smartphones, 10 tablets and SIM cards; the vehicle connects a tethered drone as an aerial coverage point, reaching a 10km radius in line of sight and about 5km in complex terrain. The project was tendered by the defence ministry with European Next Generation funding, worth EUR 1.5 million over 26 months.
Tarana and Scot-Tel-Gould trial 6GHz fixed wireless in Scotland
Tarana Wireless and Scottish WISP operator Scot-Tel-Gould will run a 6GHz trial of Tarana's Gigabit 1 (G1) platform in the Aberdeen area, deploying new G1 6GHz base station nodes and testing G1's four-carrier mode under an Ofcom experimental licence. The trial follows Ofcom's work on a standard-power outdoor use framework for 6GHz, with shared spectrum access managed through Automated Frequency Coordination (AFC). Tarana said G1 can use four separate 40MHz carriers in 6GHz for aggregated single-link capacity up to 1.6Gb/s, and that its platform already holds commercial AFC certification in the US and Canada.
Wi-Fi 7 passes 50% share as Wi-Fi 8 looms
Dell'Oro Group reports that vendors shipped more than one billion access points (APs) in the second quarter of 2026, a record for the industry. Wi-Fi 7 now accounts for over half of sales, with Wi-Fi 8 revenue expected to appear as early as the start of next year, though Wi-Fi 7 adoption will keep rising through 2028. The report noted that memory component shortages have not eased and price increases and lead-time volatility will persist; vendors shipped the most multi-gigabit and 10Gbps-port APs ever, and the WLAN market grew double digits in every region, with Europe posting the highest gain. Outdoor AP revenue has outpaced the overall market in seven of the past eight quarters.
TP-Link unveils first Wi-Fi 8 routers at IFA 2026
TP-Link has unveiled its first Wi-Fi 8 (IEEE 802.11bn) routers at IFA 2026 in Berlin, including the Archer 8 Ultra router and the Deco 8 Ultra mesh system, expected to go on sale later in 2026 with pre-orders opening in some regions on 30 September; Asus will follow with comparable products this year. Wi-Fi 8 does not chase higher peak throughput (still 46Gbps) but targets three problems: coverage in weak-signal areas, multi-device congestion and interference, using techniques such as Enhanced Long Range (ELR), Distributed Resource Units (DRU), Dynamic Sub-band Operation (DSO) and Non-Primary Channel Access (NPCA). The standard is expected to be finalised in 2028, with Wi-Fi Alliance certification starting in early 2028.
Russia launches commercial 5G, first phase covers 16 cities
Russia's Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media announced the launch of commercial 5G services on 11 September, with the first phase covering 16 cities including Moscow, St Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Novosibirsk and Kazan, reaching roughly 10 million people. Four operators - MTS, MegaFon, Beeline and T2 - are participating, with availability varying by city (all four live in Moscow and St Petersburg, only MTS in Ufa, only Beeline in Yaroslavl). Because the 3.4-3.8GHz band is reserved for the military, Russia is using 4.63-4.99GHz, which leaves iPhones unable to connect while Android devices work. The ministry plans to extend coverage to another 50 cities by end-2026 and to hot zones in million-population cities by end-2028.
Pakistan's Jazz passes 1,000 5G sites, targets 2,500 this year
Jazz, Pakistan's largest mobile operator, has become the first in the country to activate 1,000 live 5G base stations, covering 10 cities including Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar and Quetta, and is targeting 2,500 sites by December 2026. Pakistan's 5G spectrum auction closed in March 2026, raising USD 507 million for the state; Jazz holds 190MHz across the 700MHz, 2300MHz, 2600MHz and 3500MHz bands and has committed USD 1 billion in investment. China Mobile-backed Zong is expanding fast along city corridors in Karachi and Lahore, while Ufone is expected to accelerate in the fourth quarter.
Jordan's Umniah taps Ericsson for 5G phase two expansion
Jordanian operator Umniah, part of Beyon, said on 10 September that it has entered the second phase of its 5G expansion, again working with Ericsson to upgrade network components, add capacity and improve performance across all governorates to meet rising data demand from consumers and enterprises. Phase two covers enterprise scenarios such as cloud service support, data exchange and business continuity, plus consumer uses including remote work, online learning, video calling, gaming and content platforms. Umniah describes itself as the first operator to launch 5G in Jordan and has won Ookla Speedtest awards for Jordan's fastest mobile network in 2024 and best mobile network in 2025. It is also building a new data centre in Amman with Uptime Institute Tier III design certification.
Vietnam uses Open RAN as 6G springboard; Viettel teams with Intel and AMD
Vietnam is using Open RAN as a strategic springboard towards sovereign, AI-native 6G. Viettel High Tech, the equipment arm of state-owned operator Viettel, has expanded from operator to vendor, developing its own 5G radio units and core network, and in 2026 announced partnerships with Intel, AMD and ID Quantique covering AI in RAN, cloud-native architecture, high-performance computing, edge computing and post-quantum security. Viettel has already deployed its 5G Open RAN gear in Myanmar, East Timor and other countries, and is promoting it to further emerging markets. Industry observers say open architecture lets local firms take part in developing network components and reduces reliance on a handful of global vendors.
LoRa/LoRaWAN IoT market to reach USD 69.29 billion by 2032
A MarkNtel Advisors report forecasts that the LoRa and LoRaWAN IoT market will grow from USD 17.29 billion in 2026 to USD 69.29 billion by 2032, a compound annual growth rate of 26.03%, with North America leading at about 41% share. The report notes that combining LoRaWAN with AI is upgrading traditional condition monitoring into predictive maintenance: a joint solution from Advantech and Actility pairs LoRaWAN vibration sensors with the ThingPark Enterprise platform and AI machine prediction to support seven-day health forecasting. At the same time network capacity pressure is mounting, with GreenField Direct carrying 16,000 devices and around 125,000 messages a day across 300 gateways.