• DSP Leaders World Forum 2025 kicks off
• Telstra debuts direct-to-cell satellite comms with Starlink
• Viavi is set to pick even more Spirent assets

In today’s industry news roundup: The 2025 edition of the DSP Leaders World Forum has opened with some lively debates, particularly in the first AI session; Telstra launches its satellite-to-smartphone service with Starlink; new DoJ requirements mean Keysight will now be offloading three Spirent units to Viavi as part of its acquisition deal; and much more!

TelecomTV’s annual two-day DSP Leaders World Forum is up and running at the Fairmont Windsor Park hotel in the UK, with the first morning’s sessions unleashing some home truths about poor asset utilisation and PoC (proof of concept) prisons, and sparking some fiery debate around the topic of AI infrastructure investments. Danielle Rios (aka TelcoDR), acting CEO of BSS challenger Totogi, urged network operators to steer clear of AI infrastructure investments and to lean instead on the scale and power of hyperscaler partners. But are there opportunities for telcos to grab a slice of the AI inferencing (rather than AI training) opportunity in their target markets, and can sovereign AI and data services provide a business case for telco AI factory investments? If you didn’t see the session via our DSP Leaders World Forum live broadcast service, which is streaming all the sessions as they happen, watch out for the ‘AI-Native Telco: Leveraging AI throughout the network’ session, co-hosted by Gabriela Styf Sjöman, managing director of research and networks strategy at BT Group, when it becomes available on demand in the coming days. Rios also discussed some of the real-world use cases for telco AI during the session – speaking of which…. 

Challenger BSS vendor Totogi is boasting engagement with “multiple” Tier 1 telcos on the BSS Magic platform it unveiled at Mobile World Congress 2025. Although it has not named customers, the Austin, Texas-based company cited a South-east Asian multiplay operator that “slashed order time by over 80% – from five minutes to under 50 seconds – by deploying an AI agent for basket creation, validation, and intelligent suggestions”. The vendor also provided examples of telcos in North America and Europe that, it claims, have been able to implement projects in much-reduced timeframes. Danielle Rios, acting CEO of Totogi, said the company is “delivering significant results inside telcos with massive legacy estates, without a single vendor swap or forklift upgrade. You keep what works. The AI agents sit across your systems, understand your telco’s business model, and start solving problems immediately”. BSS Magic is described as a production-ready, telco-knowledgeable AI agent software that sits on top of existing systems. It uses a telco-trained ontology to create a digital twin of the operator’s business, developing “AI-powered workflows to support quoting, provisioning, migrations, and more, without professional services extensions or a change of systems”.

Like many telcos around the world, Australia-based Telstra has been reselling low-earth orbit (LEO) satellite communications services from SpaceX-owned Starlink to extend its network and plug gaps in coverage. For example, it has been offering home phone service and Starlink broadband service bundles in remote and hard-to-reach areas since 2023 in an effort to cover more of Australia’s vast landmass. In early 2025, Telstra then announced a new collaboration with the Elon Musk-controlled company to offer text messaging services via Starlink direct-to-cell satellites. Fast forward a few months, and, following a lot of testing, the service has now gone live as Telstra Satellite Messaging. The telco claims that this is Australia’s first satellite-to-mobile text messaging product, which is available for consumers and small business customers on mobile plans with a device from the Samsung Galaxy S25 series. Telstra noted that the service will mostly benefit people who live or travel outside mobile networks in regional and remote parts of the country, and that it is not designed to be an emergency service. According to ABC News, TPG-Vodafone has already tested a similar service, and Optus is working on it as well.

The attempt by rivals to purchase UK-based Spirent Communications has taken another twist, and it looks like Viavi Solutions will be picking up substantial assets of its fellow test and measurement vendor despite failing in its earlier bid to buy the company in its entirety. The story dates back to March 2024, when Viavi struck a deal to acquire Spirent for £1bn in cash. However, it was outbid by Keysight Technologies, which came in with an offer of more than £1.15bn. Then in March 2025, Viavi said it had agreed to buy Spirent’s high-speed Ethernet and network security business lines from Keysight for $410m once the latter’s Spirent deal had been completed. Now, in the latest development, this week the US Department of Justice said Keysight will in fact be required to divest three businesses – Ethernet testing, network security testing, and radio frequency (RF) channel emulation – to resolve antitrust concerns arising from the proposed merger. It seems that Viavi has come to the rescue, and is now set to buy the channel emulation business line in addition to the Ethernet and network security testing businesses

Telecom network intelligence specialist Intersec has announced the launch of 24 Camara-ready application programming interfaces (APIs) that “position CSPs to evolve from traditional service providers into platforms exposing valuable network capabilities through standardised APIs”, according to Yann Chevalier, CEO of Intersec. The company joined Camara, the Linux Foundation’s open-source network API project, in 2023 with the aim of developing and promoting the adoption of APIs. Initially focusing on defining location APIs alongside its customers Orange and Telefónica, Intersec now offers support for APIs in the three key categories of location services, authentication and fraud prevention, and device information. Camara also recently announced the availability of its second official release, Camara Meta-release Spring25, which contains 13 new and 23 updated APIs. The first release, in September 2024, contained 25 APIs across 13 sub projects. Intersec said it supports mature APIs as well as emerging Camara API candidates, and highlighted its cloud-native platform Agora that, it claims, ensures “full compatibility from 2G to 5G, adheres to 3GPP standards, and scales seamlessly”. You can see the full list of Camara APIs here, and Intersec network exposure offerings here.

Vodafone Qatar has awarded a network modernisation project to its existing network equipment supplier Nokia, noted the vendor in this announcement. According to Nokia, the operator is aiming to “deliver faster, more secure, and highly adaptable 5G services” to customers while preparing the network for “next-generation innovations”. Nokia will deploy multicloud core software solutions to bring “cloud-native grade automation, agility, and scalability” to Vodafone Qatar’s multi-access core network. In addition, Nokia’s digital operations software will support orchestration, 5G slicing automation, and AI-driven assurance. Vodafone Qatar CEO Sheikh Hamad Abdulla Jassim Al-Thani pointed to the operator’s commitment to “driving digital transformation in Qatar” in line with the Qatar National Vision 2030. “Our work with Nokia enables us to become more agile and responsive to the evolving needs of customers and businesses. By integrating advanced fibre, mobile and cloud capabilities, we are shaping a smarter, more secure network that can support everything from customised home Wi-Fi to the latest enterprise technologies”, the CEO added.

– The staff, TelecomTV