What’s up with… China Telecom, NTNs, AST SpaceMobile

• China Telecom rolls out the robots
• Telco-satellite collabs slow to take off
• AST SpaceMobile acquires mysterious S-band spectrum

In today’s industry news roundup: China Telecom and ZTE serves up 5G-Advanced private network for AI-driven robot assistants; most telco-satellite partnerships between telecom companies and satellite operators fail to get off the ground, finds new research from STL Partners; AST SpaceMobile plots faster and wider-reaching satellite broadband with the acquisition of S-band spectrum priority rights from the ITU; and much more!

China Telecom Shanghai and its vendor partner ZTE showcased their ‘5G-A EasyOn·Robot private network’ at the 2025 World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai. Working alongside AgiBot, exhibition organiser Donghao Lansheng and the Shanghai Academy of Next Generation Information and Communications Technology, the collaboration sought to demonstrate low-latency, high-performance connectivity to support the wide variety of AI applications required by exhibitors. The 5G-A EasyOn·Robot private network (which really does need a name rebrand, if we are being honest) was engineered to address the significant increase in demand for high-definition video transmission, real-time human-machine interaction, and intelligent device collaboration. China Telecom wanted to show how a new 5G-Advanced solution can support an uplink rate of more than 100Mbit/s per user, a deterministic RTT latency of less than 10 milliseconds (ms) and ultra-high reliability of 99.99%. It reported that on-site tests demonstrated overall uplink speeds of 2Gbit/s and downlink rates of 6Gbit/s for 5G-Advanced terminals. It also wanted to show how the latest cellular technology can offer an improvement on traditional Wi-Fi solutions that “encountered interference issues in high-density scenarios, resulting in slower speeds or failed connections”, as well as traditional wired solutions that are “complex and limited in mobility”. Quite. For the actual robot element of the EasyOn·Robot demo, ZTE partnered with Droidup, AgiBot and Sichuan TIANLIAN Robot to showcase multi-robot coordinated systems for possible daily applications, including a retail scenario. The ‘24-Hour Unmanned Convenience Store’ showed an automated shopping experience, with the robots guiding customers through the aisles, engaging in real-time conversation and selecting products. Read more

A new study by STL Partners has revealed that 80% of collaborations between telecommunications companies and satellite or non-terrestrial network (NTN) operators remain in the early stages, signalling a market that is still far from commercial maturity. Analysing 74 partnerships that have been announced since January 2024, STL Partners found that only a fifth have moved to beta or commercial deployment, with the majority languishing at the initial partnership or proof-of-concept and trial phases. Verizon and Telefónica have been the most active telcos in terms of engaging with satellite and NTN players since 2024, followed closely by China Mobile, T-Mobile and NTT Docomo. Starlink stands out as the leading partner for direct-to-device (D2D) services, with four active collaborations. Meanwhile, Skylo, AST SpaceMobile and Lynk Global are emerging as significant challengers, consolidating their presence through high-profile deals with telecoms operators. The data underscores that the Asia-Pacific region is at the forefront of telco-satellite announcements, accounting for 45% of those recorded, with North America and Europe following at 19% each. “The collaborations between telcos and satellite/NTN players are driven by commercial rather than geopolitical interests,” said David Martin, senior analyst and telco cloud lead at STL Partners. “Once the challenges of integration are overcome and customer experience is guaranteed for D2D, the main consideration for the telco is how far the new offering enhances its portfolio and brand, and whether those benefits offset the associated costs.” The newly launched Skywatch tracker will provide the industry with updates and insights as global connectivity evolves.

Meanwhile, AST SpaceMobile has announced an agreement to acquire unspecified global S-Band spectrum priority rights currently held by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). This purchase would expand the company’s spectrum access globally, complementing its established 3GPP-based cellular spectrum strategy and planned L-band spectrum initiatives in the US and Canada. The transaction will pair AST SpaceMobile’s low-earth orbit (LEO) commercial arrays with up to an additional 60MHz of mid-band satellite spectrum capabilities. The company stated that the new spectrum rights would enable it to bring services in S-band to targeted markets around the world. “Our satellites and proprietary ASICs [application-specific integrated circuits] were designed with S-band capabilities in mind,” said Abel Avellan, chairman and CEO of AST SpaceMobile, adding that the deal would now enable “a true broadband experience directly from space to everyday smartphones and with a goal of peak data transmission speeds of up to 120Mbit/s.” The agreement involves acquiring an unnamed entity that holds priority mobile satellite services (MSS) frequencies in the 1980–2010 MHz and 2170–2200 MHz bands. Rather disappointingly, there is a shortage of internet speculation about the identity of said entity... The transaction, valued at up to $64.5m, is expected to close in the second half of 2025.

Project Kuiper, Amazon Web Service’s low-earth orbit (LEO) satellite broadband network, is on track to add a further 24 satellites to its constellation. The KF-02 mission was originally scheduled to launch on Thursday, but has been delayed until Friday to allow for “additional vehicle checkouts”. The plan now is to try for a launch window on Friday morning eastern US time. When the mission does eventually get off the ground, it will be with the launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the iconic Cape Canaveral in Florida. It is Amazon’s second use of SpaceX as the launch vehicle, having previously used Atlas V rockets from United Launch Alliance (ULA) for the first two missions. A successful placement of these 24 Kuiper satellites into orbit will bring the total number of Kuiper spacecraft deployed to date to 102 satellites. The goal is to have in excess of 3,200. SpaceX will deploy the satellites at an altitude of 465km above Earth, at which point the Project Kuiper team will take over the mission and raise the satellites to their assigned altitude of 630km. SpaceX adds that this will be the first flight for the Falcon 9 first stage booster supporting this mission, and that after stage separation it will land on a droneship in the Atlantic Ocean. Hopefully. You can find out more about Amazon’s Project Kuiper here.

OpenAI is expected to announce the long-awaited GPT-5 later today, during a livestream event scheduled for 10am PT (6pm UK time). If you still use Twitter/X, you’ll be able to join in the fun here. The company’s last full integer release was GPT-4 in March 2023, although it has released a slew of upgrades since, including two open-weight models earlier this week. However, according to the Verge website, details were accidentally revealed by GitHub a few hours ago, in a post that has since been deleted, claiming that GPT-5 will have “enhanced agentic capabilities” and will be able to handle “complex coding tasks with minimal prompting.” It will also come in four models (sorry LLM fans, no end yet to the ever-expanding series of model options that we humans have to navigate): gpt-5, for logic and multi-step tasks; gpt-5-mini, a lightweight and cost-sensitive version; gpt-5-nano, optimised for speed and low latency; and gpt-5-chat, designed for multimodal and context-aware conversations for enterprise apps. 

– The staff, TelecomTV