What’s up with… Smartphones, Verizon, the Digital Networks Act

• Smartphone vendors face tough 2026
• Verizon suffers major service outage
• Euro telcos might get some spectrum licence joy

In today’s industry news roundup: Smartphone shipments increased in 2025, but supply chain troubles will send the sector into decline this year; Verizon has apologised for a lengthy service outage that affected a few million mobile customers; further details of the upcoming EU Digital Networks Act have been leaked, but it spells good news for mobile operators; and much more!

The number of smartphones shipped globally in 2025 reached a total of 1.26bn, a 1.9% increase on 2024’s total, according to research firm IDC. Apple held on to its market leadership position, with a 19.7% global market share (247.8 million devices shipped), thanks to its usual strong fourth-quarter sales, but Samsung was a close second with a 19.1% market share (241.2 million devices shipped). Xiaomi was the third-largest vendor (13.1% share, 165.3 million shipped), followed by Vivo (8.2%, 103.9 million) and Oppo (8.1%, 102 million). But this year is not shaping up well for the smartphone vendor sector. “While 2025 was a positive year for smartphones, the industry is now facing a distinctly different outlook. The memory shortage, which is widely considered an unprecedented supply chain disruption, will cause the market to decline in 2026 and the duration of the shortage will ultimately determine the extent of the market contraction,” stated Ryan Reith, group VP for worldwide client devices at IDC. “This is a time where the size and scale [of] the OEM will be critical, as larger players will be better able to secure advantageous supply and workable price points. Despite the outlook being down, ASPs [average selling prices] are expected to rise because of cost increases.” For further details, see this IDC press release.    

Another industry analyst firm, Omdia, also identified Apple as the global smartphone market leader in this announcement, and its team also warned that supply chain issues were set to disrupt the sector this year. “Rising cost pressures are reshaping how smartphone vendors approach 2026,” stated Sanyam Chaurasia, principal analyst at Omdia. “Higher semiconductor costs, alongside a slowing refresh cycle, are expected to weigh on shipment momentum. In response, vendors are tightening configurations, aligning launch strategies closer with component availability and using channel-led levers, such as services, trade-ins and ecosystem bundling, to support higher price points. The push toward greater scale and supply-side leverage is already becoming evident, exemplified by Realme moving under Oppo’s umbrella, reflecting early signs of consolidation as vendors seek greater scale to manage rising costs to maintain competitiveness in the decade’s second half.”

Verizon is still dealing with the fallout from a service outage that impacted more than 2 million customers for about 10 hours on Wednesday. The US operator issued an apology to those customers affected and pledged to add credit to their accounts. The operator also stated there was no indication that the outage was the result of a cyberattack, reported Reuters.   

Speculation is growing about what will be included in the upcoming Digital Networks Act that is due to be unveiled by Henna Virkkunen, the European Commission’s executive vice president for tech-sovereignty, security and democracy, on 20 January. Citing a document its team has seen, Reuters reports that the Act will revamp spectrum licence rules to give mobile operators the right to use airwaves without a time limit, as long as they make use of the spectrum and don’t leave it idle. The document seen by Reuters stated: “Spectrum usage rights shall be in principle granted for an unlimited duration. Sufficiently long duration of rights of use of radio spectrum should increase investment predictability to contribute to faster network rollout and better services, as well as stability to support radio spectrum trading and leasing.” Europe’s telcos have been calling for a more streamlined and uniform process for spectrum licence awards across the European Union member states, along with multiple other requests that would improve their return on investments and make it easier to gain greater scale through M&A deals. Last week, Reuters reported that the US big tech firms were likely to evade enforced regulation under the terms of the Digital Networks Act and only be required to conform to a “voluntary framework” rather than the binding rules that govern telcos operating in the EU’s 27 member states.  

Atlanta, Georgia-based DC Blox, which operates 17 datacentre facilities and 600 miles of dark fibre lines across the south-east of the US, has secured $240m in financing from Global Infrastructure Partners. The facility “provides growth capital for DC Blox’s hyperscale datacentre expansion strategy” and “follows the $1.15bn and $265m senior secured green loans” previously announced, “supporting the development and construction of DC Blox’s expanding portfolio of digital infrastructure projects,” the company announced. 

Mumbai, India-based IT and system integration services giant Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has forged a strategic collaboration with semiconductor giant AMD “to help enterprises scale AI adoption from pilots to production, modernise legacy environments, and build secure, high performance digital workplaces,” the companies announced. The partners aim to “help enterprises modernise hybrid cloud and edge environments, deploy AI-powered workplace solutions, and accelerate innovation across cloud-to-edge workloads.” Dr Lisa Su, chair and CEO at AMD, noted: “AI adoption is accelerating, and unlocking its potential requires a new scale of high-performance computing and deep collaboration across the industry. AMD is building the open, end-to-end compute foundation that enables AI across the enterprise. Through our work with TCS, we are helping customers translate AI innovation into new growth opportunities across industries.” TCS CEO K. Krithivasan added: “By combining TCS’s deep industry expertise with AMD’s high-performance computing capabilities, we are enabling organisations to move from AI experimentation to AI at scale and deployment. Together, we plan to co-create industry-specific GenAI [generative AI] solutions, modernise hybrid cloud and edge environments, and shape the next generation of intelligent workplace.”

– The staff, TelecomTV