Category: Mobilize

Mobilize covers the range of issues facing IT leaders and team members in their efforts to support the business activities of an increasingly mobile workforce.

GSA’s Latest Private Wireless Market Tracker Notes 5G Acceleration – and Caution

by John Marcus, posted in Internet of Things, Mobilize, Network
A headshot of a man with short dark hair, wearing a black collared shirt, smiling against a light blue background.
John Marcus – Senior Principal Analyst, Enterprise Mobility and IoT Services.

Summary Bullets:

• GSA customer numbers for Q4 2025 show private 5G network traction continuing, driven by repeatable, vertical-specific use cases in manufacturing, mining, and campuses.

• 2026 momentum hinges on pragmatic LTE-to-5G evolution, spectrum clarity, and ROI-focused rollouts amid supply-chain and macro risks.

The Global mobile Supplier Association (GSA)’s Q4 2025 snapshot on private 4G/5G, published in February 2026, suggests it is a market that remains relevant only to certain enterprise segments, while also being more firmly established. With over 2,000 customers of GSA member companies tracked by year-end 2025, one can infer the increasing normalcy of cellular as an enterprise connectivity platform for operations, safety, and automation. Most organizations have more than one private network deployed, (almost) each of which generated revenues exceeding EUR100,000.

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The Middle East Conflict – The Impact on the ASEAN ICT Market

by Alfie Amir, posted in Cloud Enable, Communicate, Mobilize, Secure
A smiling man in a suit and tie, with short hair, against a white background.
A. Amir

Summary Bullets:

• Within the ASEAN enterprise ICT market, the conflict has no direct impact, but indirect effects are becoming increasingly apparent due to the higher crude oil prices and rising electricity costs.

• The industry can expect lower ICT spending, higher operational costs for telcos, and slower AI momentum.

The conflict in the Middle East has entered its third week and is expected to continue for several more weeks. Its impact can already be seen globally across multiple sectors, as discussed in detail in GlobalData’s The Middle East Conflict – Executive Briefing, March 10, 2026.

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Carriers Grow Traffic Significantly While Also Delivering Energy Efficiency

by Rob Pritchard, posted in Cloud Enable, Communicate, IT Leader, Mobilize, Network
R. Pritchard

Summary Bullets:

  • Comcast has nearly doubled the energy efficiency of its network ahead of its 2030 target while also carrying 76% more data.
  • Other examples of greater energy efficiency through new technology include BT Global Fabric, where the replacement of legacy platforms will see a 79% energy consumption reduction.

Comcast announced that it is near to reaching its goal of doubling its network energy efficiency ahead of its 2030 target, stating that it is “delivering dramatically more data at faster speeds and greater reliability at the highest quality for our customers, all while conserving the amount of energy needed to power our network.”

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Verizon: Do or DEI Another Day, The Sequel

by Guest Author, posted in Cloud Enable, Communicate, IT Leader, Mobilize
R. Pritchard

Summary Bullets:

• Any telco in the US making deals must be cognizant of the current administration’s efforts to destroy diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) commitments.

• Service providers have traditionally understood benefits of progressive DEI but now need to conceal efforts from a dogmatic set of regulators for long-term strategic benefit.

Verizon has become the latest telecoms service provider to abandon its DEI programs under pressure from the US administration (please also see: T-Mobile USA: Do or DEI to Close Lumos Deal? – IT Connection, April 7, 2025). The move follows alleged demands from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in exchange for its approval of the $20 billion acquisition of fiber broadband provider Frontier Communications and reflects a broader response across US corporations to the policies of the current administration.

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Verizon: Do or DEI Another Day, The Sequel

by Rob Pritchard, posted in Cloud Enable, Communicate, IT Leader, Mobilize
R. Pritchard

Summary Bullets:

• Any telco in the US making deals must be cognizant of the current administration’s efforts to destroy diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) commitments.

• Service providers have traditionally understood benefits of progressive DEI but now need to conceal efforts from a dogmatic set of regulators for long-term strategic benefit.

Verizon has become the latest telecoms service provider to abandon its DEI programs under pressure from the US administration (please also see: T-Mobile USA: Do or DEI to Close Lumos Deal? – IT Connection, April 7, 2025). The move follows alleged demands from the FCC in exchange for its approval of the $20 billion acquisition of fiber broadband provider Frontier Communications and reflects a broader response across US corporations to the policies of the current administration.

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Safaricom’s Deal with SaaS Company tappi Highlights Importance of Startups in Africa’s Tech Ecosystem

by Ismail Patel, posted in Cloud Enable, Mobilize
I. Patel

Summary Bullets:

  • Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) startup tappi teamed up with Safaricom’s mobile platform M-PESA to improve the digital presence of M-PESA’s small and medium business (SMB) users.
  • The partnership provides SMBs with tools that scale their operations, enhance their customer engagement, and boost their online visibility in the digital space.

tappi, a Kenyan e-commerce SaaS startup, teamed up with Kenya incumbent and African operator group Safaricom to support its mobile payments platform M-PESA’s network of 650,000 Kenyan SMBs to improve their digital presence. The partnership provides SMBs with tools that scale their operations, enhance their customer engagement, and boost their online visibility to capitalize on the opportunity in the digital space.

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Operators Face Multiple Hurdles Before 5G Network Slicing Can Be Offered Commercially

by John Marcus, posted in Internet of Things, Mobilize, Network
John Marcus – Senior Principal Analyst, Enterprise IoT, Mobility, Private Networks, and Service Innovations.

Summary Bullets:

• In January 2024, GlobalData predicted that the business services units of mobile operators would begin promoting 5G network slicing in 2024, educating enterprise customers about the technology being enabled by their rollouts of 5G standalone (SA) technology.

• Even with some progress on 5G SA rollouts around the world (and a handful of commercial trials), it’s already clear that this prediction was premature.

The potential with slicing to create multiple virtual networks within a single physical infrastructure – each tailored to specific needs – is still very much there, but a number of challenges must yet be addressed before operators can successfully launch 5G network slicing solutions for enterprises.

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Helping Telcos Monetize their Networks through Communications and Network APIs

by siowmeng, posted in Big Data, Cloud Enable, Communicate, Mobilize
S. Soh

Summary Bullets:

• Vendors such as Nokia and Ericsson are helping their telco clients to monetize their network assets through APIs.

• They are combining network APIs and communications APIs as well as tapping the CPaaS developer community to accelerate the adoption.

Application programming interface (API) is an important capability for connecting software applications and systems. The API allows developers to create software that use the functionality and data offered by another application or system. This enables innovation and workflow automation, and it is a critical part of the digitally connected ecosystem. As industries become more digitized, APIs become more important. The telecommunications sector has been developing API capabilities for some years, but they have not been able to commercialize their APIs, until now. There have been major developments in 2024 as the standardization of APIs through the CAMARA project, which is an open-source project within the Linux Foundation to develop and test APIs in collaboration with the GSMA (for more, please see GenAI, Network APIs, and 5G are Coming Together Nicely to Drive App Development and CX, March 7, 2024). There are two key areas of API opportunities for the telcos – network APIs and communications APIs – but they sit in different domains and attract different developer communities. Some telco-focused vendors are now bringing the two domains together.

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Vodafone 5G Edge Update Notes Maturing Portfolio – and Customers

by John Marcus, posted in Internet of Things, Mobilize, Network
John Marcus – Senior Principal Analyst, Enterprise IoT, Mobility, Private Networks, and Service Innovations.

Summary Bullets:

• Vodafone has now delivered more than 100 mobile private networks (MPNs), most of which are now in production environments.

• Vodafone’s MPN portfolio incorporates hybrid networks and slicing, but most production deployments include a dedicated, on-premises component – although MEC demand remains limited.

Vodafone Business provided an update to analysts in May 2024 on what Vodafone calls its 5G edge. For the most part, this refers to its dedicated MPN offering, but also incorporates hybrid MPN and mobile edge compute (MEC) solutions.

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Comcast Sees Upside in Mobility as it Makes Pragmatic Moves to Tap Growth

by John Marcus, posted in Internet of Things, Mobilize
John Marcus – Senior Principal Analyst, Enterprise IoT, Mobility, Private Networks, and Service Innovations.

Summary Bullets:

• Comcast Business has set a long-term goal of generating its “next $10 billion” in annual revenues.

• Mobile and IoT are among areas where some of that growth is being sought, but efforts so far can be described as pragmatic and realistic.

As Comcast Business contemplates what it sees as a total addressable market of $50 billion, it has been pragmatically plugging holes in its portfolio to pursue some of the lower-hanging fruit around small business, including mobile (where it reported 6.9 million consumer and business customers in Q1 2024). Indeed, mobility and IoT were included often in executives’ comments at the Comcast Business Analyst Conference in April 2024 where there was also agreement that it remains early days for the company in those domains.

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