• SpaceX holds talks with Crown Castle over tower access
• Nokia and Iceye sign letter of intent for sovereign satellites in Ukraine
• Comcast set for job cuts after connectivity revenue falls in Q3

In today’s industry news roundup: Elon Musk takes the next steps in his Starlink Mobile takeover plan after reportedly holding talks with Crown Castle over access to its towers; the Ukrainian government signs a strategic intent agreement with Nokia and Iceye over a sovereign satellite service; Comcast to make significant job cuts across its embattled connectivity business as it prepares for the split from its media arm; and much more!

SpaceX has reportedly entered talks with Crown Castle over access to its portfolio of towers, as founder Elon Musk looks at accelerating his plans to take on the US mobile market. A report by Bloomberg claims that the space company, which offers satellite communication services through Starlink, has held talks with passive infrastructure firm Crown Castle about accessing its 40,000 cell sites across the US. The news agency in fact claims SpaceX is looking to access at least 80,000 cell sites, which suggests Musk’s team are also talking to other tower providers. Musk has previously made it clear that he plans to develop a mobile network to compete (or even surpass) existing US terrestrial operators T-Mobile, AT&T and Verizon, though question marks remain as to how he would achieve this given limitations on satellite connectivity. The talks come just weeks after SpaceX announced its purchase of low-band spectrum from Grain Management. Musk and the SpaceX management team unveiled the company’s ambition to evolve Starlink Mobile – which currently partners with telcos (including T-Mobile US) to offer direct-to-device (D2D) services from space – into a nationwide US cellular service provider in August when, during SpaceX’s first earnings call as a listed company, they outlined a plan to build an extensive cellular small cell network across the US in order to compete directly with the market’s three major telcos. Musk, who is no stranger to major market disruption, told investors that the resulting network could provide “connectivity that is, we think, probably better and higher bandwidth than what is currently available from cellular providers” – see Musk’s Starlink plots small cell rollout to rival US mobile operators.

As relations soured between the US and Ukrainian governments last week, Starlink found itself caught in the middle, with Ukrainian officials accusing Elon Musk of slowing down the satellite services on which the country has relied to defend itself against Russian attacks. However, this week, Nokia and Finnish satcom Iceye signed a letter of intent with the Ukrainian government to develop a sovereign satellite connectivity service that can be used by the nation’s military. The shared intent, announced as the Finnish prime minister visited Ukraine earlier this week, builds on an agreement between Nokia and Iceye to develop secure, sovereign and high-performance broadband low-earth orbit (LEO) satellite communications for European governments. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said: “Modern warfare has proven that reliable communications are a matter of national security. We must all rely on capabilities that we can control. The letter of intent between the Ministry of Defense, Iceye and Nokia is an important step in this direction.” To find out more about the importance of satellite and sovereign services in Ukraine during the war against Russia, watch our recent interview with Kyivstar COO Volodymyr Lutchenko here.

Comcast Corp. is set to cut jobs across its cable, broadband and wireless operation, with the US firm expecting to incur a charge topping $1bn in its fourth quarter, according to reports. The cableco lost 144,000 domestic residential broadband customers in the third quarter of this year, it said on Thursday, while revenue from its connectivity and platforms business fell 2.7% to nearly $19.7bn. Overall, revenue across the company was down 6.1% year on year to $29bn. “We don’t look at it as a cost-cutting exercise,” said chief financial officer Jason Armstrong during the company’s fiscal third-quarter earnings call. “This is the ability to simplify in order to move faster, to be more nimble in decision-making and, I think, really create capacity to invest for growth.” The layoffs are expected to be spread across the firm’s connectivity and platforms unit, which will remain as Comcast once it is separated as part of a spinoff of its TV, film and streaming service, which was announced in June and is expected to be completed next summer. Comcast had about 179,000 employees at the end of last year.

Telefónica has partnered with IQM Quantum Computers to deploy the first quantum computer in the Spanish capital of Madrid. The IQM Spark computer, which is an all-in-one solution designed for research, education and early-stage development, will be installed at the Technical University of Madrid before the end of the year, and will be made available to universities, hospitals, research centres and start-ups, giving them access to real quantum hardware, which will allow them to develop and test quantum algorithms for future use cases. It will be the first quantum computer of its kind to be made available to the community of Madrid and joins two other quantum computers provided by Telefónica and IQM to CESGA (Galician Supercomputing Centre). Borja Ochoa, non-executive chairman of Telefónica España and CEO of B2B, said: “This project marks another step forward in Telefónica’s close collaboration with the community of Madrid in the deployment of quantum technologies, both in networks and in the encryption and protection of critical data in particularly sensitive sectors, such as healthcare and security, and now also through the research opportunities offered by quantum computing.”

VodafoneThree is working with the National Parks UK to launch a new wildfire resilience programme to support habitat recovery in areas that have experienced wildfire damage, and to strengthen defences against further fires in the future. According to the European Forest Fire Information System, record heatwaves this summer fuelled wildfires across more than 90 square miles of UK land, with more than 72 major fires – larger than 74 acres – requiring multi-agency responses. The UK mobile operator has joined forces with National Parks UK and Cairngorms National Park Authority to fund practical initiatives designed to better understand the impact of wildfires and strengthen resilience across the Cairngorms (Scottish Highlands) landscape. The scheme will include ecological monitoring and spatial mapping to assess burn severity and identify natural habitats that helped slow down the spread of fire. The project will also fund the creation and management of ponds that can provide accessible water sources for firefighting. Nicki Lyons, chief corporate affairs and sustainability officer at VodafoneThree, said: “As climate-related risks become more frequent and severe, collaboration will be essential to protecting some of the UK’s most important natural assets and the communities that depend on them. Together with National Parks UK and the Cairngorms National Park, we’re launching a new programme that will support recovery from recent wildfire damage while helping strengthen resilience to future fires. Connectivity can play an important role in emergency preparedness and response, and this programme demonstrates how technology, local expertise and long-term commitment can come together to support communities facing changing climate.”

– The staff, TelecomTV