eSIM will support new features 'like being able to switch plans instantly, getting live-at-arrival connectivity when traveling abroad, or intelligently shifting between networks,' according to the company.

Reuters reported that the FCC's four commissioners will approve Verizon's purchase of América Móvil's TracFone shortly. The prepaid provider counts a total of around 20 million customers.

Although there are a few new elements in play, including possible smartphone shortages and a competitive discount from Dish, Black Friday looks relatively calm this year on the wireless front.

Telcos need a way to address the hyperscaler lock-in. Roz Roseboro ponders whether Vodafone's TaaS platform plan is a reasonable insurance policy or another example of a telco driving recklessly.

New working group aims to conceive an 'evolved architectural blueprint' for hybrid MVNO models in which cable operators will strive to combine access to a partner's mobile network and their own Wi-Fi and 4G/5G networks.

The operator's plan to recruit another 7,000 software engineers and build more of its own technologies threatens upheaval in the IT vendor community.

In response, the NCTA called the report 'a highly distorted view' of ISP data collection policies that inappropriately attempts to lump broadband providers into the same category as the Big Tech platforms.

At the exact same time that AT&T executives were boasting that their 'aggressive acquisition and retention efforts continue to bear fruit,' T-Mobile launched a new $1,000 competitive attack.

Verizon stopped offering its most aggressive smartphone promotion to its existing customers, but continues to offer it to new customers. Meantime, AT&T reduced its smartphone discount from $1,000 to $800.

Made famous by this year's MWC, public cloud evangelist Danielle Royston now has $1 billion at her disposal to buy and develop telecom software.

Kyrio's new software-powered Adaptive Route Control (ARC) system enables fixed and mobile operators to route customer traffic to the best available network on an application-by-application basis.

Some companies are offering generous sign-up bonuses. Others are cutting store hours. Whatever the result, it's clear that workforce shortages are beginning to affect the retail sector of the wireless industry.

With its new Spectrum Exchange, Federated hopes to provide spectrum licenses on-demand, just as Google scales its cloud computing services up and down based on customer demand.

Armed with a $300 million from an 'F' round led by Japan's SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Plume intends to target companies that can broaden the smart home software specialist's cloud, data and AI capabilities, Plume CEO Fahri Diner says.

CSG says the deal will enable it to tie in third-party services that can take advantage of emerging 5G network slicing capabilities and help CSG's partners extend to markets such as connected healthcare and manufacturing.

Blank check company targeting TMT/ICT firms in Europe and emerging markets starts life on Nasdaq.

AT&T and T-Mobile are requiring that employees who return to offices are fully vaccinated. T-Mobile is working to get most employees back into the office by the end of this month.

Shareholders in call center software company Five9 voted down what would have been Zoom's biggest purchase ever, as videoconferencing company eyes its post-pandemic future.

Partly due to rules on EU data sovereignty, Spanish giant will shift 'mission-critical' OSS/BSS apps from Oracle database systems onto private data centers.

Huawei's 4G PCRF at BT-owned mobile operator to make way for cloud-native and 'converged' 4G/5G policy solution from US supplier.

Verizon and T-Mobile's best iPhone 13 offers require customers to subscribe to their most expensive unlimited plans. AT&T, meanwhile, 'is offering its most lucrative promotions to all unlimited customers.'

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Nokia lands XGS-PON deal with Telekom Slovenije; TalkTalk offers six months' free fiber broadband to jobseekers; Ericsson's vision thing.

A number of companies in the telecom industry have attempted to create a network of individual networks. But Helium is doing so with one big, new element: a very clear and tangible incentive.

Verizon's Hans Vestberg said it's a 'tougher labor market there' in retail, due to the ongoing pandemic. He also acknowledged 'there are some challenges in the supply chain.'

T-Mobile's iPhone 13 promotions aren't impressing analysts. The company's new 5G icon follows Verizon's lead. And T-Mobile's growth prospects for Q4 appear stunted. 'Uncarrier' it isn't.

Marc Price, CTO of Matrixx, talks about the possibilities that exist for network operators when they can more creatively charge for services and what new infrastructure unlocks those opportunities.

Verizon's Ronan Dunne didn't say exactly what Verizon might do in the prepaid market, but he said the company might slow the migration of customers from prepaid services to postpaid services.

Apple is widely expected to announce its iPhone 13 during an event next week. Here are six themes to track as Apple shows off its latest smartphone wares.

Light Reading is delighted to announce the finalists for this year's Leading Lights Awards program, which is now in its 17th year.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Sparkle goes green in Greece; Colt lays fiber in the Channel Tunnel; Google appeals French fine.

A year since launching Japan's fourth mobile network, the Japanese Internet company is now setting itself up as a vendor.

US software supplier can lay claim to a starring role in the Swedish telecom group's ambitious IT transformation program.

A laptop tethered to a phone via a Wi-Fi hotspot is consuming data in the exact same set-up that a smart watch tethered to a phone via Bluetooth is consuming data. But the cost is much, much different.

With roots stemming back to Suddenlink and Altice USA, the startup recently landed a $3 million seed round from a group that includes Cequel III, an investment firm led by cable industry vet Jerry Kent.

Verizon promised to offer Lifeline services via TracFone for at least three years, one of several promises the company made in hopes of speeding regulatory approval of the transaction.

Rakuten Mobile's revenues grew 17% though building base stations dragged it into the red, after deals buying Altiostar and partnering Germany's 1&1.

'This is a manufactured crisis, orchestrated by Dish, and it is about money, not customers,' according to T-Mobile's CEO. But Dish Chairman Charlie Ergen said that T-Mobile is just being a 'sore winner.'

Last week's telecom news highlights included an overview of Rakuten's impressively aggressive plans, a look at Telegram's rapid growth and the looming threat it presents to telcos, and a summary of the supply chain issues that broadband equipment providers are having as the pandemic has forced higher prices and longer wait times for many components and logistics services.

Rakuten is betting that its elaborate composition of software and services will be music to the ears of telecom operators, enterprises and more.

In a move aimed at focusing its business on fiber-fed customers and big businesses, Lumen has struck a deal with Apollo to offload a large part of its US network, The WSJ reports.

AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile are all encouraging their prepaid customers to sign up for more profitable postpaid services. Dish's forthcoming postpaid brand is 'a huge opportunity for us to do the same.'

A newly reported settlement between the state and telecom trade associations likely puts to rest an effort to require broadband providers in New York to offer a $15 tier of service.

Private equity company Stonepeak agreed to buy Lumen's Latin American business for $2.7 billion. Whether that deal will pave the way for Lumen to sell its US-based DSL business to Apollo remains to be seen.

Last week's telecom news highlights included some spectrum auction and siesta news from Spain, an update on how Verizon moved forward with a fabulous, free 5G phone promotion, and you'll find out what US city took a gamble on building a network that covered 65 square miles with broadband in just 45 days.

Venk Mutalik, a Comcast engineer, developed 'XMF,' a monitoring system powered by spectrum analyzer chips used in ROADMs. XFM reduces the time to pinpoint fiber cuts from two hours to about 90 seconds, Comcast says.

The Scandi operator plans to reduce the number of IT suppliers from 29 to just four as part of its latest transformation program.

Zoom buys cloud call center business Five9 for $15 billion, eyeing a new market for its Zoom Phones and Rooms.

Says latest acquisition will shore up customer orchestration and analytic capabilities and enable CSG to strengthen its presence in areas such as retail, financial services and healthcare.

Japanese supplier will also migrate 11,000 employees worldwide onto the Azure platform.

Dish Network debuted a customer loyalty program shortly after it acquired Boost Mobile from T-Mobile. But the company is no longer offering that '$hrink-It' program.

Verizon said it will 'make available a service plan to Lifeline and other prepaid customers through TracFone that includes 5G service.' But the carrier didn't say which flavor of 5G it might offer.

NEC and its Netcracker subsidiary aim to show off the benefits of running a 5G core in the public cloud without losing all the control of the traditional telecom OSS/BSS.

T-Mobile is using the eSIM capability in newer iPhones to give customers a free month of service on its network, one of the many functions enabled by the shift to eSIM.

T-Mobile's marketing leadership is in a transition phase. Meantime, AT&T is preparing a brand refresh campaign. The actions are in response to expectations of frenetic growth in the 5G industry this year.

The French group says a cyberattack was not to blame for a major network outage that affected calls to emergency numbers.

Although a New York judge issued an injunction against legislation requiring $15 per month broadband, the issue is still very much undecided.

Staneff said on Twitter that it's time for a new adventure. He left the wireless carrier on June 1.

Amid rejoicing at the apparent end of a pandemic, Verizon believes the time is 'perfect' to offer a promotion worth more than $1,000. The stage is set for a fierce battle over 5G customers.

This isn't your typical telco-cloud partnership, but it might be the most interesting of all, given Dish's greenfield status and a handful of unanswered questions, writes contributing analyst Roz Roseboro.

Verizon's latest promotion includes free 5G phones and up to $300 to encourage prospective customers to switch to the operator. But they're also contingent on Verizon's more expensive service plans.

Thanks to its agreement with sports betting provider DraftKings in March, Dish Network said it now plans to add sports entertainment services to Boost Mobile.

The Israeli software giant snapped up Openet in August last year after failing to swat it in the law courts. Here's what happened next.

Acquisition of long-time partner brings real-time policy control to CSG's tech stack, lets billing and charging specialist target emerging 5G monetization market.

'Big Tech has been enjoying a free ride on our Internet infrastructure,' wrote FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr, the latest indication that Internet companies may soon pay to cross the digital divide.

In ditching its WarnerMedia business, AT&T plans to refocus on fiber and 5G. How might that effort – which includes an increase in spending – affect AT&T rivals like Verizon and T-Mobile?

Friday fun: The Informa Tech 5G 100 influencers lists needs an update. Let us know who should stay, who should go and who you think we're missing.

Verizon has asked the FCC to speed up the approval process for its proposed $7 billion acquisition of TracFone.

Stanford University's Nick McKeown, recipient of the 2021 IEEE Alexander Graham Bell Medal, joins the podcast to discuss a career milestone and a very forward-looking 5G project that involves (hopefully not) crashing drones on purpose.

The US wireless industry collected a total of more than 7 million new postpaid phone customers during the past 12 months. Where are all these new customers coming from?

In the early days of the Trump administration, a group of senior broadband industry executives hatched a plan to overturn the FCC's net neutrality guidelines, according to the New York Attorney General.

Colombia's fourth mobile operator is said to be aiming for a 25% market share in five years.

T-Mobile counts around 900,000 Dish Network customers that will be affected by its CDMA plans. Dish puts that number closer to 4 million. The truth may lie elsewhere.

T-Mobile said in January it would 'reevaluate' its political contributions. But in February the company was among those that made the maximum legal contributions to GOP candidates.

AT&T added 595,000 postpaid phone customers during the first quarter, far ahead of Verizon. However, AT&T's promotional efforts in the industry 'can only go so long,' according to analysts.

Dish is fretting over T-Mobile's CDMA shutdown plans. But some financial analysts believe the whole issue is just 'an attempt to reduce Dish's burden to provide GSM-compatible devices.'

President Biden has hinted that the federal government might step in to 'reduce Internet prices for all Americans.' But some analysts aren't expecting that kind of heavy-handed regulation.

Verizon is now applying discounts to phones with cracked screens. That's just one indication among several of how the US wireless landscape could soon get a lot more competitive.

Verizon's new hyper-sensitive location service relies on several dozen Real Time Kinematics (RTK) reference stations the operator has constructed across the US.

All of the big US network operators are working to get customers to subscribe to their expensive service plans, but the details of their 5G pricing strategies highlight their divergent network positions.

The biggest wireless network operators in the US announced in 2019 that they would jointly launch RCS messaging services sometime in 2020. But it was not to be.

Dish Network has said T-Mobile's CDMA shutdown plans raise 'significant competition and public interest concerns.' But T-Mobile issued a blistering retort to Dish: 'Go do your job.'

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Fastweb taps Amdocs for network inventory upgrade; MTN seeks $5 billion valuation of mobile money unit ahead of stake sale; A1 Telekom Austria brings your package inside.

Following warnings from the likes of T-Mobile, Gogo and Infinera, Verizon said that it does not expect the global chip shortage to affect its C-band buildout plans.

T-Mobile is now offering a free 5G phone alongside promises of cheaper 5G services than the competition. The operator's announcement may represent the final piece of its 5G puzzle.

The recent misfortunes of Japan's answer to WhatsApp could be an opportunity for Japan's telecom operators.

AT&T primarily used its sponsored data service to remove usage charges from its video services, including HBO Max, for customers who have otherwise had to pay per-GB fees to stream them.

'The requirement for a completely new architecture for developing service products and then delivering and managing them became apparent to me,' says CEO Harley Stowell.

Verizon claims that its C-band spectrum can cover more territory than T-Mobile's 2.5GHz spectrum can. T-Mobile claims the exact opposite. The truth may be somewhere in the middle.

Starry spent $48 million on 24GHz licenses in 2019. Now, the company is working with T-Mobile to test its own equipment for transmissions in that band on the way toward 'final certification and deployment.'

T-Mobile quietly changed its customer privacy policy so that it can begin selling customer data to advertisers without having to obtain the customer's explicit consent.

Dish announced it will purchase T-Mobile MVNO Republic Wireless and its 200,000 customers. The move signals Dish's apparent interest in building an MVNO empire on the road to 5G.

A Rewheel study based on factors including macro cell site counts and customers' average data usage indicates Verizon, Jio and MTS operate networks that could be constrained.

Operator Connect function to allow calls to be placed over the PSTN, part of a raft of Teams updates announced for Microsoft Ignite.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Deutsche Telekom teams up on urban data; Openreach goes with Viavi for network management; Proximus in Bruges.

Late last year, T-Mobile told Dish it would shut down its 3G CDMA network for Boost customers by January 1, 2022. That's a full year earlier than Dish had expected.

T-Mobile is hoping to encourage customers to sign up for new, more expensive Magenta MAX service by removing monthly usage limits.

Improved latency is one of the 'great goals of the designers of 5G,' OpenSignal noted, and it's only available to operators that switch on the 'standalone' version of 5G.

Startup Lynk plans to light up commercial services by 2022 – that's one year earlier than its rival, SpaceMobile. Both companies promise to connect standard cellphones to satellites.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Brits turn to mobile data to survive lockdown logjam; Ericsson deploys private network with Cosmote; Proximus signs up One Bill Global as MVNO.

Deal, which values Synacor at $92 million, comes roughly eight months after Synacor and Qumu called off their proposed merger.