• Telus reveals C$900m cost-saving plan in Q3 results
• ETSI publishes report on ISAC
• Vodafone Ireland unveils roadmap for 5G SA

In today’s industry news roundup: Telus announces a net loss of C$660m in its quarterly financial results and outlines plans for a C$900m annual cost-saving drive; ETSI publishes a report explaining how computing can be tied into ISAC to support 6G services; Vodafone Ireland to begin 5G standalone trials later this year ahead of a planned 2028 rollout; and much more!

Canadian operator Telus revealed more details of a major cost-saving plan as it posted a net loss of C$660m and a C$800m writedown of its health business in its latest financial results, which also reported growth in its core telecom offering. The operator has initiated a new efficiency programme aimed at finding around C$900m of annual savings by the end of 2028, with the savings to be made from a combination of operational cost savings, a slimmed down portfolio and capex efficiencies. Around 80% of the savings will come from its core telecom business, and the rest from its global platform unit, Telus said. As for its ongoing financial performance, third-quarter consolidated operating revenues totaled C$5bn, down by 1% year on year, despite growth in the Canadian operator’s core telecom business. Consolidated EBITDA was down 5% year on year to C$1.8bn, which the company attributed to lower Telus Digital revenues that were impacted by reduced client service volumes from two hyperscaler clients. Its telco subscriber base grew by 6% to 18.3 million (including 10.4 million mobile users) with mobile revenues increasing 1% to C$1.78bn, although mobile equipment revenues fell slightly to CAN$516m ($518m in previous year). Fixed data services revenues grew 2% to almost C$1.19bn, while fixed voice continued to decline, down 7% to C$155m. “Since our second-quarter earnings call, our core telecom business has shown clear signs of stabilisation and we have made important progress on the execution of our transformation strategy,” said the relatively new CEO, Victor Dodig. “Our strategy has one clear objective: Returning Telus to a leading communications and AI infrastructure player in Canada. We’ve identified specific levers to structurally transform Telus, and we’re moving with clarity and urgency to strengthen our financial foundation, hone our operational discipline and control costs, and deploy resources to drive profitable and sustainable growth and returns. The company took an C$800m non-cash impairment charge for its Telus Health business during the quarter, as it determined the recoverable amount it could earn from the unit was less than what is currently accounted for in its books, which it blamed on “updated growth expectations and broader market conditions”. 

As part of its results, Telus also named Mark Allera, who was previously the CEO of BT Group’s consumer unit EE, and ex-KPMG chief Bill Thomas to its board of directors with effect from 1 January 2027, the company announced. Allera headed up BT’s consumer business from 2016 to 2025 and previously held senior roles at Three UK and EE (prior to its acquisition by BT). He is currently serving as chair of CVC’s Global Support Group and of game company Jagex. Thomas recently stepped down from his role as global chair and CEO at KPMG International, a job he had held since 2017. A Canadian, he started off at the company by heading up its Canada division from 2009 until 2014, when he also took on the rest of the Americas region. John Manley, chair of the board at Telus, noted: “Marc and Bill have exactly the experience our board needs as Telus invests in its networks and sharpens its focus on customers and disciplined capital allocation. Marc has led major consumer telecom businesses through large-scale transformation with fibre and 5G builds, and Bill has led one of the world’s largest professional services firms, with deep expertise in audit and risk. We’re delighted to welcome them both.”

The 6G news continues to roll in, with a focus today on the capability currently regarded as key to 6G’s potential success – ISAC (integrated sensing and communication). Industry specifications body ETSI has published a new report that examines how computing can be incorporated into ISAC to support future 6G services such as smart factories, drones, collaborative robots (cobots) and extended reality (XR). The report identifies five key technical challenges and explores six potential solutions for integrating computing, sensing and communications within future mobile networks. “Emerging 6G applications, including autonomous vehicles, robotics and digital twins, will require increasingly sophisticated computing capabilities to process vast amounts of data and respond to their surroundings in real time,” noted ETSI. “However, limitations on device size, power consumption and processing capacity mean that individual devices will struggle to meet these growing demands. While cloud computing can provide additional processing power, relying on distant datacentres can introduce delays that are unsuitable for 6G applications that require ultra-low latency.” To address these challenges, ETSI’s report “examines how computing could become an integral part of 6G network architecture, alongside sensing and communications. This would allow processing tasks to be distributed across devices, networks, edge infrastructure and the cloud, according to the requirements of different 6G services.” Alain Mourad, chair of ETSI’s ISAC industry specifications group (ISG), noted: “ISAC has the potential to transform what mobile networks can do, but sensing the environment is only half the challenge. The information collected needs to be processed quickly and efficiently if it is to support applications such as autonomous vehicles, robotics and intelligent infrastructure. As we move towards 6G, computing power could become just as important as connectivity in determining what these networks can deliver. By addressing these challenges now, we are helping lay the foundations for future 6G standardisation.”

Still with ISAC… The US National Spectrum Consortium (NSC), in partnership with the FutureG Office in the Office of the Under Secretary of War for Research and Engineering OUSW (R&E), has made 11 awards totalling more than $50m under the Real-world Application Prototyping for ISAC Demonstrations (RAPID) programme. “The investment underscores FutureG’s commitment to developing ISAC technologies, which will play a critical role in the emerging 6G wireless standard and provide valuable new capabilities across the military and commercial network landscape,” noted the NSC in this announcement. The companies, along with their subcontractors, to receive the RAPID funds are: 

• Abside Networks with Northeastern University
• Altio Labs with Arizona State University, DASH Tech Integrated Circuits, Mississippi State University
• AT&T with Ericsson
• George Mason University with Michigan State University
• Leidos with Tiami Networks
• North Carolina State University with University of Utah and Mississippi State University
• Nokia Federal with Future Tech, Texas Tech University, AT&T, DeepSig, Hidden Level
• Parallel Wireless with Andro, Virginia Tech
• Peraton Labs with Nexcepta
• System and Technology Research with Northeastern University
• Texas A&M University with University of California San Diego, IBM, Northrop Grumman

Principal director for FutureG, Dr Tom Rondeau, stated: “The RAPID programme represents a critical shift from theoretical 6G concepts to tangible, software-defined prototypes. By investing over $50m into these 11 diverse, collaborative teams, the FutureG Office is actively driving the dual-use technology needed to strengthen our national security and economic advantage. Our goal is to rapidly transition these ISAC capabilities from the lab into the hands of our warfighters and commercial partners. Through this robust partnership with the NSC, we are not just defining the standard for next-generation networks, we are actively building the foundation to lead the global wireless landscape.” FutureG is already blazing the ISAC trail with another US wireless tech specialist, Cohere Technologies – see Cohere Technologies lands $28m FutureG deal for ISAC R&D.

Vodafone Ireland has set a goal of providing 5G standalone (5G SA) services to more than 70% of the population by 2028, with plans to launch trials with businesses and public sector groups by the end of 2026. The operator said it will trial 5G SA in Limerick and Shannon, before expanding to Cork, Dublin, Galway and Waterford in 2027. 5G SA will enable the operator to launch new services, such as network slicing, which its UK sister company launched earlier this year. Speaking at its Future Frontiers event in Dublin, Vodafone Ireland CEO Sabrina Casalta said technologies such as 5G SA and AI will require secure, resilient digital infrastructure and greater certainty for long-term investment through cooperation from businesses, regulators and government. “Ireland has a real opportunity to turn the next wave of technology into greater productivity, innovation and competitiveness,” she added.

Veon-owned Kyivstar saw double-digit revenue and earnings growth in its third quarter, despite operating in the face of the continued war between Russia and Ukraine that has seen the operator’s infrastructure and even its headquarters become a regulator target for Russian military attacks. In its most recent filing, the Ukrainian operator posted $349m of revenue, up 17.5% on the previous year, while EBITDA was up 10.3% to $189m. Its broadband customer base continued to grow, while it also saw strong growth in digital services, up 69% to $76m. As part of the wider Veon group strategy to move beyond traditional telecom services, in recent years Kyivstar has moved into ride-hailing, health care and cloud technology among others. The operator last year became the first Ukrainian company to list its shares on the Nasdaq, though Veon remains its majority shareholder with an 83.6% stake. Check out our recent interview with Kyivstar COO Volodymyr Lutchenko where he discussed turning resilience into a strategic advantage and a competitive advantage for its customers in the face of extreme adversity.

Worldwide spending on telecom and pay-TV services will increase by 2.3% to reach $1,585bn in 2026, according to research firm IDC, which stands at 0.5 percentage points higher than its previous forecast for the full year. But don’t get too excited about the improved outlook, because the numbers do not reflect “genuine growth”, the analysts concede. “Accelerating inflation is the main force behind this forecast,” noted IDC in this press release. “Energy prices are expected to remain elevated for some time as the conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine continue, pushing up telecom operators’ costs. To protect their margins, operators will likely raise tariffs. Because operators in most countries need regulatory approval before changing prices, the benefit to market growth will be spread across the remainder of 2026 and 2027,” noted the IDC team. However, “inflation is not a source of genuine growth for the market, as the boost it provides is purely nominal. Historical growth rates have consistently fallen short of the annual inflation rates reported in official statistics for the same years, indicating that the market is contracting in real terms,” explained the IDC team, which identified differences in growth rates across the main geographic zones and also briefly discussed the increasing role of satellite services in the overall global telecom mix.  

Ethio Telecom has partnered with ZTE to deploy Ethiopia’s first pre-commercial AIR RAN solution. Initial testing found the solution delivered an 11% increase in 4G capacity on the Ethiopian operator’s network, as well as a 40% gain in user throughput during peak hours. The solution uses frequency division duplex (FDD) massive MIMO technology alongside ZTE’s AIREngine computing solution to introduce AI-driven beam scheduling, which controls resource allocation on radio access networks in response to changing network traffic demands. It builds on two years of collaboration between the African operator and the Chinese vendor, ZTE said in a press release, during which they have tested how to improve RAN efficiency through AI solutions.

– The staff, TelecomTV