Based on preliminary findings, the telecom equipment market declined 16% year over year in Q2, “recording a fourth consecutive quarter of double-digit contractions,” Dell’Oro Group said in a new report. “Helping to explain the abysmal results are excess inventory, weaker demand in China, challenging 5G comparisons, and elevated uncertainty,” the report said. China saw a 17% market downturn, but Chinese gear makers Huawei and ZTE are gaining market share, Dell’Oro said. The top seven suppliers in the first half of the year were Huawei, Nokia, Ericsson, ZTE, Cisco, Ciena and Samsung, the report said: “Huawei and ZTE combined gained nearly 3 percentage points of share between 2023 and 1H24.”

GSMA said the group’s board selected Vivek Badrinath as director general and member of the board, effective April 1, replacing Mats Granryd. Badrinath comes to GSMA from Vantage Towers, where he was CEO. Previously he was an executive at Vodafone and Orange. The announcement of Badrinath followed a “rigorous selection process,” said GSMA, which produces the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona each year. In addition, it produces regional conferences, including a version in Las Vegas each fall with CTIA. “During our selection process it was clear that Vivek’s deep understanding of the industry and its potential make him the ideal individual to lead the GSMA into the next phase of its evolution,” said Jose Maria Alvarez-Pallete Lopez, GSMA chair. Granryd will stay in the position through April 1 and become a special adviser to the board for the remainder of 2025, the Monday announcement said.

Ukraine’s Military Institute of Telecommunications and Information Technology, which suffered a Russian missile attack Tuesday killing more than 50 people according to media reports, provides telecom education to military and nonmilitary students in the central Ukrainian city of Poltava. The institute offers education in information and cybersecurity, information systems and technologies and telecom and radio engineering, based on the institute’s website.

Taiwan-based Edgecore Networks announced Tuesday it’s working with India’s Indio Networks to accelerate adoption of OpenWiFi. “By integrating Edgecore’s OpenWiFi-compliant products with Indio's Open Cloud Controller and Wi-Fi service management platform, the partnership offers users a high-performance OpenWiFi networking solution that enhances operational efficiency,” said a news release. Open-source architecture “provides users not only with freedom but also the ability to overcome limitations, increase operational efficiency, and improve overall network” return on investment, said TengTai Hsu, Edgecore vice president.

FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr supported SpaceX CEO Elon Musk in online posts and remarks over the weekend, condemning the actions of a Brazilian judge against Musk’s X social media platform as part of a global movement toward censorship. Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes issued an order banning X Friday. “de Moreas’ own words make clear that he is attempting to strike a broader blow against free speech and in favor of authoritarian controls,” Carr wrote in a long X post on de Moraes’ opinion. “With X refusing to cave to secret and unlawful demands, you’re now seeing public and unlawful demands instead,” Carr wrote. He also reposted Musk's comments, condemning de Moraes as a dictator during an audio-only X Spaces stream. “This is part of a global movement where people believe that they can get away with what would otherwise be characterized as naked authoritarian actions, provided that they use the rubric of doing this to, quote, preserve democracy or save democracy,” Carr said. “If you are going particularly after the right type of political enemies, which happen right now, for whatever reason, to be sort of the populist right,” then “there's been a level of acceptance,” said Carr. “What is happening in Brazil that should be immediately and clearly rejected by the right, the left and the center, because once we erode these ideas of free speech and individual liberty every single one of us end up being harmed at the end of the day.” Carr has increasingly engaged with Musk on X (see 2408190040) in recent weeks (see 2408270048), visited SpaceX in August and posted a picture of himself and Musk together last week.

FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel signed an enforcement and data-sharing agreement with Canada’s privacy regulator, the agency announced Wednesday. The memorandum of understanding between Rosenworcel and Privacy Commissioner Philippe Dufresne establishes a framework for sharing enforcement-related information in both countries, the FCC said: “In today’s digital age, telecommunications carriers have access to vast amounts of personal information, which is stored and transmitted across complex networks that extend beyond traditional borders. Cross-border enforcement cooperation helps to protect consumer privacy, data, and cybersecurity.” Rosenworcel said data privacy protection and cybersecurity are a “top priority” for the commission.

Rakuten Mobile reached a deal with a group of infrastructure funds to sell and leaseback parts of its network, Rakuten said Thursday. The company expects it will raise as much as $2.1 billion working with the group, which includes Macquarie Asset Management and British Columbia Investment Management. “Rakuten Mobile is already well on its way to profitability, and with our new initiative, we will continue to build on this momentum as we aim to reach profitability even faster and become the top mobile carrier in Japan,” Mickey Mikitani, Rakuten Group chair and CEO, said.

FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel announced Thursday that Troy Tanner, deputy chief of the Space Bureau, will serve as acting chief of the FCC Office of International Affairs. The position is considered critical as FCC work heats up in preparation for the next World Radiocommunication Conference. Tanner replaces Ethan Lucarelli, who died suddenly in May (see 2405150037). Lucarelli was the new office's first chief. A 14-year FCC veteran, Tanner previously served as deputy chief of the former International Bureau, and was formerly a lawyer at Bingham McCutchen and Swidler Berlin.

BT Group is the first European provider to achieve 5G carrier aggregation using five spectrum blocks, boosting its 5G stand-alone (SA) performance ahead of a network launch later this year, a Friday news release said. The technology “will significantly boost the data rates available to customers in areas of high demand by combining all mid-band radio spectrum when the 5G SA device requires a high-speed connection,” BT said. Tests were conducted at BT Group’s headquarters in Adastral Park, U.K., using Nokia’s 5G AirScale portfolio and a device that a Qualcomm Snapdragon 5G modem powered. The “promise” of 5G SA “is the opportunity to stay connected at the busiest of times in the most crowded of places,” said Greg McCall, BT Group chief networks officer. “5G SA isn’t just about what’s on offer at launch, it’s also about creating a platform for advancements down the line in terms of the new services and capabilities it will deliver to consumers and businesses alike,” he said.

Telecom Italia (TIM) completed the sale of its fixed network infrastructure and other assets to the Optics BidCo consortium, a subsidiary of investment firm KKR, in a deal valued at $24 billion, the company said this week. “The completion of the transaction with KKR and the Italian Ministry of Finance is the result of two and a half years of intense work, during which we have improved the management of TIM and identified industrial and financial solutions that will enable us to meet future challenges,” TIM CEO Pietro Labriola said.