Press Release

BT Group and Verizon Communications Inc. have announced the signing of an agreement to combine their respective international enterprise operations into a 50:50 joint venture – in a move that is set to transform international connectivity.

The new joint venture will focus on serving multinational organisations. It is expected to serve more than 3,000 customers across more than 180 countries, representing approximately $4 billion in combined annual revenue. This breadth of operations will unlock significant scale efficiencies across the combined global network and service operations following completion.

Designed specifically for a cloud-first world in the age of AI, the joint venture brings together BT International, which serves multinational customers with secure and resilient communication and network services around the world, with Verizon’s international enterprise wireline arm, which provides secure connectivity to enterprises worldwide. Both BT and Verizon will hold equal voting rights and Verizon has agreed to pay BT an equalisation payment of $625 million.

By combining global scale with infrastructure designed and built to support local compliance and sovereignty needs, the joint venture will create a stronger platform for growth and accelerate the rollout of next-generation connectivity platforms. Customers will benefit from secure and resilient connectivity designed to meet data, operational and regulatory requirements.

At the same time, the parent companies will be better able to focus on their domestic markets, while providing support to the new joint venture as equal shareholders.

BT and Verizon have also today confirmed that Martijn Blanken has been appointed Chief Executive Officer-designate of the new joint venture, conditional on the completion of the transaction. Martijn has almost three decades in senior leadership positions across telecommunications, technology and digital infrastructure at Telstra, Openwave Systems, EXA Infrastructure and KPN, and a career spanning four continents. From 01 September he will join BT and will work with both parent companies, while observing relevant regulatory requirements, as they prepare for the launch of the proposed joint venture.

Clive Selley will continue to lead BT International as CEO, ensuring continuity of BT International’s ongoing transformation in readiness for the creation of the joint venture. Verizon’s leadership remains unchanged.

Allison Kirkby, Chief Executive of BT Group, said: “The world’s leading brands and international organisations trust BT International to connect them across the world. Bringing together this expertise and heritage with Verizon’s deep relationships with multinationals will create a stronger, scaled connectivity partner – one that has the reach, innovation and investment to succeed. Customers will benefit from new, secure and resilient connectivity platforms, which are designed for the age of AI and sovereign where it matters. It will create new opportunities for our people and long-term value for our owners. Today’s announcement marks a major milestone for BT International, and an important step forward for BT as a whole, as we deliver on our UK-focused strategy.”

Dan Schulman, CEO of Verizon, said: “Our international customers require secure, flexible connectivity that works seamlessly across borders and cloud environments. When we thought about how to best support them, this joint venture was the clear answer: a cutting-edge, AI-ready and secure platform run by a single global organization dedicated to their needs. At the same time, our relationship with those customers will stay equally strong as we continue to directly provide them with the connectivity they need in the U.S.”

The transaction is subject to regulatory clearances and consultation with employee representations in countries where required. BT and Verizon’s international businesses will continue to operate independently until the transaction officially closes with a full commitment to their respective customers.

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Press Release

[Copenhagen, Denmark, June 26, 2026] At Digital Transformation World (DTW 2026) hosted by TM Forum, the joint project submitted by China Telecom and Huawei—”To AN Level 4 and Beyond – How 900+ AI Agents Have Transformed China Telecom’s Operations”—was honored with the 2026 Excellence in Autonomous Networks Award. This marks the second consecutive year the partners have taken home a heavyweight industry award, following their success at the 2025 TM Forum Excellence Awards. This latest win underscores high industry recognition for their breakthrough progress in the evolution of autonomous networks.

Booming services, including mobile AI, live streaming and mobile gaming have raised consumer expectations for mobile network quality. To address this demand, China Telecom and Huawei have co-developed a domain-specific large model dedicated to radio network experience improvement: the Network Experience Improvement Large Model. Built on China Telecom’s proprietary network large model foundation and powered by SRCON 2.0 (Simulated Reality of Communication Networks 2.0) as its core engine, the model identifies poor-QoE events network-wide and translates complex user experience anomalies into precise, readily actionable network optimization solutions. Combined with large language models to enable end-to-end autonomous operation, the solution effectively improves network quality, mitigates potential customer complaints and consistently boosts user satisfaction.

The solution has been rolled out across 21 cities with remarkable results: grids suffering from poor user experience have been cut by 20%, while network-related customer complaints have dropped by 10%. The deployment successfully converts AI computing power into tangible, high-quality network experiences for end users.

Looking ahead, China Telecom and Huawei will further deepen their strategic partnership to drive technological innovation and standards development. Committed to building AI that truly “understands networks and users,” the two parties will keep injecting robust momentum into the intelligent transformation of the global communications industry, and translate the requirements for developing new quality productive forces into concrete industrial practices.

Press Release

[Copenhagen, Denmark, June 24, 2026]‌ At the DTW 2026, Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison (IOH), in partnership with Huawei, won the “Excellence in AI & data for business impact” award for the new Generation intelligent operations solution AUTINOps based on the AI-Native Framework for Intelligent Operations. Leveraging cutting-edge technologies such as Digital Twin Network (DTN), Multi-agent collaboration, and Domain Specific Model (EDNS 2.0), the solution addresses the complex challenges of network operations in Indonesia, establishing a benchmark for AI-Native-driven operations transformation in the global telecom industry.

IOH and Huawei are committed to joint innovation centered on value and technology, pioneering the deployment of the AUTINOps solution across IOH’s network. This initiative elevates technology, processes, and organization through comprehensive intelligent transformation. By applying data governance framework of “Identify-Analyze-Optimize-Retain,” along with full-domain DTN and EDNS 2.0. These enable real-time, network-wide visibility, supporting fault management and predictive risk prevention. Through core capabilities such as multi-agent collaboration, dynamic chain-of-thought, and domain knowledge management, the solution achieves an 80% one-hop closure rate for fault-handling and reduces mean time to repair (MTTR) by 15%. In terms of network quality, availability improved from 99.3% to 99.7%, and site traffic loss decreased by 15%.

Simultaneously, both parties redefined the operations model, streamlining the original nine-step manual process into a two-step intelligent closed loop. This transformation facilitated the skill upgrade of over 400 operations personnel and cultivated 65 “digital employees,” establishing a new intelligent operations paradigm characterized by “humans supervising/enhancing AI Agents to execute and close tasks.”

The solution has been deployed at scale across all IOH network domains, including wireless, microwave, IP, transport, and energy, with annual agent calls exceeding 2 million, supporting communication services across more than 17,000 islands in Indonesia. Furthermore, based on project practices, IOH and Huawei have contributed 15 new standards, protocols, and methodologies to TM Forum, providing reusable practical experience for the digitization operations transformation of global operators.

IOH and Huawei Win “Excellence in AI & Data for business impact” Award

This TM Forum Excellence Award reaffirms Huawei’s technical strength and deployment capabilities in intelligent operations. Huawei will continue to explore and practice Agentic Operations together with leading operators like IOH, accelerating the journey towards ANL4 and implementing a new operations paradigm driven by value.

Press Release 

Huawei with TM Forum and 12 Operators, Jointly Releases the New-Generation Intelligent Operations White Paper 4.0‌ 

[Copenhagen, Denmark, June 23, 2026]‌ At the DTW Ignite 2026, Huawei in collaboration with TM Forum and 12 global operators, jointly released the New-Generation Intelligent Operations White Paper 4.0. This white paper focuses on Agentic Operations, integrating practical achievements from multiple global operators. It elaborates on the AI-native operations architecture, implementation pathways, and business value, aiming to accelerate the construction of a new paradigm for ICT operations, unleash new value, and enable a leap for operational intelligence. 

Since the first version was released in 2023, Huawei has released four generations of white papers, continuously evolving along the operational transformation path of “network-centric,” “service-centric,” and “value-centric.” Based on technological advancements and industry pain points, White Paper 4.0 proposes an AI-Native intelligent operations value proposition: value-driven, with Digital Twin Network (DTN) and Domain Specific Model (EDNS 2.0), and a new paradigm of intelligent operations featuring Hybrid Team + Agentic Process. 

White Paper 4.0 distils a “Three-Stage, Six-Step” methodology encompassing data governance, process re-engineering, and organizational transformation, along with a four-stage data governance framework of “Identify-Analyze-Optimize-Retain.” Simultaneously, leveraging DTN and EDNS 2.0, continuously scans network and service status in real-time, identifies risks, and generates remediation plans. This ensures the effectiveness of backup and disaster recovery mechanisms at the T0 moment, guaranteeing stable service operations. By eliminating risks at the T-1 moment and enabling rapid fault recovery at T0, it establishes a “dual protection” for intelligent operations. 

Based on this framework, a new operational paradigm is redefined: shifting from humans utilizing tools to execute and close tasks, to humans supervising/enhancing AI Agents to execute and close tasks. Through intelligent agents, massive-scale tasks such as inspections and fault handling are automated, allowing personnel to shift focus to high-value work like complex problem-solving and agent development/optimization. Several operator practices have already been implemented, achieving an agent one-hop closure rate of over 80%, supporting the dual enhancement of network and service quality. 

Danwill Duan, President of Huawei ICT Assurance and Operation Services Domain, stated: “Agentic Operations is an inevitable trend in the evolution of network operations. White Paper 4.0 consolidates the exploration achievements of the entire industry. We hope to take this as an opportunity to collaborate with more partners to effectively address challenges, create greater value, and accelerate the journey towards AN L4.” 

In the future, Huawei will continue to collaborate with global operators and standards organizations, deepen technological innovations in Domain Specific Models, Digital Twins of Networks, and AI Agents, continuously improve the new-generation intelligent operations framework, and accelerate the transformation of technological innovation into operational benefits.

President of Huawei ICT Assurance and Operation Services Danwill Duan 

Interprets White Paper 4.0‌ 

Official Download Link for the New-Generation Intelligent Operations White Paper 4.0:‌ 

https://inform.tmforum.org/research-and-analysis/reports/new-generation-intelligent-operations-an-ai-native-reinvention 

Press Release 

[Copenhagen, Denmark, June 24, 2026] At Digital Transformation World (DTW) 26, Huawei, in collaboration with TM Forum and GSMA Intelligence, hosted the 5th Green & Resilience Development Forum, bringing together industry leaders to explore the sustainable development of communications networks. The forum featured in-depth discussions on the Green Network Index (GNI), AI-powered energy efficiency, and resilient architecture practices, collectively charting the course toward green and resilient networks.

Executive Vision: Green + Resilience as Dual Engines for Future Networks

Tim Niu, President of Huawei’s Network Consulting and System Integration Department, delivered the opening remarks, warmly welcoming distinguished guests and partners from around the world. The forum’s theme—”AI-Driven Green & Resilience: New Blueprint for Zero-Carbon and Reliable Network Architecture”—underscored a critical paradigm shift: green networks are no longer optional but essential. Resilience serves as the baseline for sustainable networks, while AI acts as the accelerator toward the 2030 zero-carbon vision.

“Huawei is committed to collaborating with industry partners worldwide, leveraging ‘green + resilience’ as dual engines to advance the GNI standard and the Hedera architecture,” Tim stated. “Together, we will build networks that are low-carbon and measurable, resilient and verifiable, and evolvable and sustainable.”

Industry Consensus: Green Transformation of Communications Networks is Imperative

Peter Jarich, Head of GSMA Intelligence, presented the Green Network Index Round 2 findings. The second round introduced an enhanced measurement methodology and comprehensive indicator system covering entire networks, individual networks, and stations. Over 20 mobile and fixed network operators participated in this initiative. Additionally, the GNI digital platform has been launched, providing operators with case studies for sustainable development planning and benchmarking.

Marc Einstein, Director of Research at Counterpoint Research, explored how AI is reshaping the sustainability trajectory of telecom operators. Drawing on validated operator data, he highlighted that AI-driven optimization has achieved annual energy savings of 4 billion kWh. Over the past decade, Telefónica has seen data traffic surge by 1,200%, while total network energy consumption decreased by 12%, and energy density ratio declined by 92% compared to 2015. Green is no longer merely a compliance requirement—it has become a strategic foundation for the digital economy and computing power networks.

Lloyd Chan, Vice President of Strategic Transformation at HKT, outlined HKT’s approach to infrastructure development, emphasizing green practices, cyber resilience, and AI enablement. Network modernization, intelligent power supply systems, and resilient architecture design not only improve operational efficiency and mitigate operational risks, but also support AI-era service development and emerging application requirements.

Technological Innovation: AI Accelerates Green and Resilient Development

David Yu, General Manager of Huawei’s Green Resilience Target Network Solution, addressed key industry challenges: accelerating climate change, rising OPEX, and the prevalence of low-efficiency legacy equipment and network outages. Huawei has partnered with industry organizations to establish a green network index and Hedera Architecture, leveraging digital twin capabilities and AI for data governance. The solution is promoting the transformation of traditional wireless base stations into green smart sites and legacy equipment rooms into edge data centers capable of meeting future computing demands, supporting collaborative development across mobile, home, and business (CHB) scenarios—achieving results over 30% ahead of industry benchmarks.

“Green and resilient innovation provides the driving force for carriers to develop high-quality services and maintain a competitive edge.” David noted.

Looking Ahead: Infinite Value in Industry’s Green and Resilient Transformation

Facing dual pressures from global shifts and surging traffic, Huawei has invited GSMA Intelligence, Counterpoint, and HKT to explore this topic together, reaching a consensus: green and resilience are no longer a trade-off—they are shared imperatives. Looking ahead, the industry will move from passive energy saving to active energy intelligence, powered by the GNI standard and AI agent technology, building a digital foundation that is both low-carbon and resilient. Green and resilience are strategic imperatives, not competing options. Huawei looks forward to working with global partners to build a green target network that is zero-carbon, resilient, and built to deliver.

Company News

M&A

The acquisition stands to bridge SpaceX’s engineering ecosystem with next-generation developer intelligence.

Edited by Brad Randall, Broadband Communities

June 23, 2023 — SpaceX has announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Anysphere, Inc., the creator of the popular AI-powered coding assistant Cursor.

According to a Form 8-K filed with the SEC, the all-stock transaction values Cursor at an implied equity value of $60.0 billion.

Under the terms of the agreement outlined in the Form 8-K, SpaceX will merge a wholly owned subsidiary into Cursor, which will continue operating as a wholly owned subsidiary of the aerospace giant. Cursor shareholders will also receive SpaceX Class A common stock, with the share exchange ratio determined by the stock’s 7-day volume-weighted average price prior to closing.

The acquisition bridges SpaceX’s engineering ecosystem with next-generation developer intelligence, potentially supercharging software automation for Starlink.

The transaction is subject to standard regulatory approvals and is expected to close in the third quarter of 2026, SpaceX’s SEC filing stated.

Automating the future of network deployment

As massive tech mergers signal a broader shift toward deep AI integration, the broadband sector is already finding ways to leverage this intelligence at the network level.

To see how these computational breakthroughs translate into localized, real-world utility, don’t miss the session “AI in Action: Improving the Resident and Support Experience“ at the Broadband Communities Summit 2026.

Happening on August 26 at 3:35 PM in Room 310A-C, this panel features leaders from RealPage, Apartment SEO, and RUCKUS Networks discussing exactly how AI is shifting from experimental tech to an operational powerhouse.

Secure your pass today to learn how to harness the AI revolution for your networks.

Some AI tools also assisted in the crafting of this report.

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News

A broad coalition of telecom trade associations is warning that rapid AI expansion is causing a critical shortage of U.S. memory chips.

Edited by Brad Randall, Broadband Communities

June 23, 2026 — A coalition of major trade associations—including tech and telecom leaders like NCTA, ACA Connects, NTCA, and the Telecommunications Industry Association, alongside healthcare technology groups MDMA and AdvaMed, the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, and retail giants via the Retail Industry Leaders Association and the National Retail Federation—has raised alarms over an emerging memory chip shortage they say threatens to disrupt supply chains and drive-up costs across multiple sectors.

In a June 3 letter addressed to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, the groups outlined the critical challenges posed by surging demand for memory chips driven by the rapid expansion of artificial intelligence (AI) data centers.

The letter emphasizes the “unprecedented surge in the price of memory chips and reduced supply of these chips for manufacturing and consumer-facing industries.”

Widespread industry disruptions

It also warns of immediate and near-term impacts, including rising prices for everyday electronics, increased costs for telecommunications infrastructure, and risks to sectors ranging from automobile production to medical device manufacturing. Federal contractors, particularly small businesses, also face potential delays and disruptions in fulfilling procurement commitments, the June 3 letter argues.

Market imbalances persist

Despite significant U.S. investments to boost chip manufacturing, the coalition asserts that market imbalances persist.

They urge the government to “work with memory chipmakers and chip buyers to assess steps that can be taken to address this imbalance” and protect consumers, workers, and businesses alike.

Proposed measures include accelerating capacity expansion domestically and in allied countries, leveraging trade and investment agreements to strengthen supply chains, and adjusting regulatory frameworks to support faster sourcing and innovation.

Additionally, the letter conveys a spirit of partnership, stating the signatories “stand ready” to discuss solutions.

The organizations also underscore their alignment with the administration’s broader economic goals, aiming to “bolster the strength of the U.S. economy, resilience of our supply chains, and prosperity of our citizens and businesses.” As AI continues transforming technology landscapes, ensuring balanced and reliable access to memory chips is now front and center on the policy agenda.

FMS 2026

With surging AI demands putting unprecedented strain on the global tech ecosystem, the industry is also racing to evolve.

Discover the solutions firsthand at The Future of Memory and Storage | FMS 2026, happening August 4–6 at the Santa Clara Convention Center. Featuring an elite lineup of keynote speakers, deep-dive sessions into HBM, CXL, and advanced data center strategies, FMS 2026 is where the technology community maps out what comes next. Secure your pass now to connect with the global innovators redefining data scaling.

Some AI tools also assisted in the crafting of this report.

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Viewpoint, Comarch Communications

The European telecommunications market is expected to grow slowly, at just 2% to 3% by 2029. Because of this slow growth and the challenges of a complex global economy, operators are rethinking how they work. The industry is now looking beyond traditional consumer cellular services, which are only growing at 3% to 4%, and is moving toward broader communication ecosystems, including mission-critical networks, satellite infrastructure, and massive IoT deployments.

These challenges and emerging trends were extensively discussed at the recent Comarch User Group gathering, highlighting the critical paths operators must take to stay competitive. The event hosted over 700 partners from 53 countries across 8 streams, including 201 connectivity experts.

Economic pressures and productivity demands

The global economy now demands high levels of investment, especially in technology. Major countries are spending heavily. China, for example, is allocating 25% of its GDP to infrastructure and technology, creating far more value than Europe’s tech investments. In this competitive environment, traditional efficiency methods are not enough. Communication Service Providers (CSPs) need to boost productivity by quickly adopting new technologies.

“Global markets are pivoting towards AI adoption, where traditional efficiency methods simply won’t be enough to keep pace with the global economy. As we emphasized alongside our partners at the recent Comarch User Group, CSPs must fundamentally rethink their operational models. We can no longer rely solely on consumer cellular services, we must pivot aggressively toward broader, more complex ecosystems and services that encompass mission-critical networks, massive IoT deployments, and autonomous multi-orbit satellite infrastructure,” commented Marcin Kaleta, CEO at Comarch Communications.

Tackling complexity with Agentic AI

One of the main challenges for CSPs is handling the growing complexity of their networks. Right now, up to 40% of network outages are caused by human error, and 88% of digital transformations do not meet their goals. To address this, the industry is moving from basic automation, which depends on humans following rules, to Agentic AI, where systems take on more responsibility within set policies.

Client case studies presented at the Comarch User Group this year highlighted that changing systems to support intent-based actions allows for as much as 30% to 40% cut in Network Operations Center costs and a 10% to 20% faster Mean Time to Repair (MTTR). However, only 6% of CSPs have the data streaming abilities needed to fully use advanced AI models, meaning that technical readiness is still a big hurdle.

Massive IoT deployments and API Economy

Integrating Massive IoT into 5G networks brings new physical and technical challenges. The old way of constantly checking devices drains batteries and can overload the network. During the inaugural IoT Connectivity Forum at CUG 2026, experts detailed that switching to an event-driven setup and using the 5G RedCap standard makes it easier to manage connected devices. Standardizing CAMARA interfaces and Network Exposure Functions (NEF) also helps operators move toward an “API economy.” This change enables them to monetize network Quality of Service (QoS) through targeted microservices, making CSPs more than just simple data carriers.

Overcoming technology debt with modular systems

To take advantage of these new revenue opportunities, operators need to address their existing technology debt. Old, monolithic systems often slow down IT teams and pose significant risks when changes are made. Instead of replacing everything at once, the industry is moving to composable Business Support Systems (BSS) using the TMF Open Digital Architecture. This modular approach allows for targeted upgrades, such as adding cloud-native billing engines that can scale resources as needed.

Jacek Prokop, BSS Product Marketing Manager at Comarch Communications, highlighted this topic, referring to monolithic legacy systems as a “silent killer”. To mitigate the risks of migrating away from these monoliths, he introduced the concept of operational digital twins within a modular architecture present in Comarch Communications’ Composable BSS suite: “We are giving you a secure, isolated sandbox where you can clone and test your real production data, like orders and products, without ever touching the live system.”

Sovereign networks in the face of global instability

Geopolitical instability has made connectivity more than just a basic service – it is now seen as a key part of national sovereignty. There is a clear gap in space infrastructure: the US has many more satellites and launches them much more often than Europe. To reduce this dependency, programs like the European Union’s IRIS² are investing €10 billion in building a secure, multi-orbit satellite network. Running this kind of infrastructure requires ground software that can manage complex data and mission control autonomously, without relying on other countries.

Preparing core architecture for the next decade

As the industry faces economic pressures and the need to improve productivity quickly, it is important to focus on core architecture rather than individual use cases. Building modular systems and supporting operational independence will be key for operators who want to profit from new ecosystems.

Looking ahead, CSPs need to ask themselves an important question: Is our data architecture strong enough to support autonomous agents and sovereign networks so we can stay competitive in the next decade?

Hundreds of millions of people around the world maintain family, work, and community ties across borders. The United Nations estimated the number of international migrants at 304 million in 2024. This large, dynamic population relies heavily on cross-border communications. Consequently, international calling serves as an essential infrastructure for staying connected with families and households split across borders. 

Yet for decades, the pricing, reliability, and user experience of international calls from traditional operators lagged behind domestic mobile services.

Pricing was often difficult to interpret, rates varied widely by destination and plan, and call quality was inconsistent on certain routes. This gap created the conditions for a new category of providers to emerge — cross-border communication apps, including international calling apps for expats and diaspora communities.

The telecom operators’ diaspora market gap

In 2024, the World Bank estimated record remittances to low- and middle-income countries at $685 billion, larger than foreign direct investment and official development assistance combined. World Bank projections also put remittances to low- and middle-income countries at $690 billion in 2025, reinforcing the scale and persistence of the cross-border relationships behind the market.

Many traditional operators prioritized ARPU from domestic subscribers, while international calling was handled mainly as a source of margin. In practice, it was rarely developed as a service built around the needs of expat communities.

Apps built specifically for diaspora communities underserved by traditional communities took a different view. They competed on price transparency, destination breadth, and reliability to reach mobile numbers in countries where generic VoIP termination alone was not enough. The result was a better kind of international calling service, and it helped define the international calling app market around repeat cross-border communication needs.

What cross-border communication apps got right — three structural lessons

The rise of cross-border communication apps offers more than a competitive warning. It shows how specialist providers earned repeat usage by addressing practical problems that legacy international voice services had not fully resolved. Three decisions stand out.

1. Pricing transparency as a trust mechanism

Cross-border calling apps displayed per-minute rates, making the cost clear before a call was placed. That reduced friction in a category where users had often been exposed to unclear usage charges and bill shock. International calling rates transparency became a trust mechanism for diaspora users making repeat calls to the same destinations.

2. Ecosystem thinking beyond the call

The most durable platforms in this space combined international calling with complementary services, knowing that diaspora communities had multiple needs.

That same understanding helps explain why diaspora mobile top-up services and mobile recharge abroad became natural extensions of the calling relationship. One study published in the International Journal of Data Science and Analytics found that international airtime top-up transfers are heavily used by expats to support families in their home countries.

The call was only one part of the service. The stronger platforms added messaging, domestic calling plans, and mobile top-up around international calling. Mobile top-up lets users send credit or data to a family member’s prepaid SIM abroad.

3. Routing quality for emerging-market destinations

Dependably reaching a mobile subscriber in Guatemala, Nigeria, or the Philippines requires a different termination strategy than calling a landline in Western Europe.

This is because real-time voice is sensitive to delay, congestion, and the quality of the interconnection path. A 2025 IETF RFC document on congestion control notes that workloads such as Voice over IP can face performance issues from congestion, and that network evaluation should account for added latency or increased packet loss.

For cross-border communication apps, routing quality was not a back-end detail. It was part of the user experience. Platforms that invested in direct carrier relationships and redundant routing paths for high-demand corridors were better positioned to deliver reliable call quality than generic VoIP alone.

They treated termination as a corridor-specific problem rather than defaulting to the cheapest or most convenient available route.

With diaspora communication, quality is measured less by technical architecture than by whether a call connects, stays connected, and is clear enough for a conversation.

BOSS Revolution international calling as a case study

The BOSS Revolution international calling model is a useful case study in the cross-border communication app category. IDT launched the brand in 2008 as a low-cost, PIN-less international long-distance calling service. Since then, it has grown to 6M+ active subscribers and processes 36M+ mobile top-up transactions annually (across more than 280 carriers in 95 countries). It also has a 25K+ retail distribution network.

What largely fueled the BOSS Revolution calling app growth was a combination of app-based international calling access, strong features, and complementary services. It offers international diaspora communities services that support their wider needs. Users can make international calls, send mobile airtime to relatives abroad, and use related services such as money transfer from the same ecosystem.

BOSS Revolution illustrates the bundle logic and user-experience-first approach that made a defined product category rather than a legacy add-on.

The operator opportunity in migrant communication services

Traditional operators are not structurally excluded from the cross-border communication market. In many cases, they already have the assets that specialist apps had to build around. They have network relationships, billing infrastructure, distribution, customer trust, and experience operating regulated communications services.

The issue is not access to the market. It is whether operators treat migrant and diaspora communication as a product design challenge, not a pricing exercise. The tools to do that already exist, which makes this a practical telecom operators diaspora market opportunity rather than only a defensive response to specialist apps.

eSIM technology is lowering entry barriers for MVNOs by eliminating physical SIM distribution and enabling digital-first launches. This allows MVNOs to partner with major carriers to target specific diaspora communities without building a massive retail footprint from scratch. Consequently, an MVNO diaspora strategy provides carriers with a practical, precise route to serve niche markets. Finally, API-driven platforms seamlessly connect airtime, data, and payment flows across these international borders.

The strategic question is whether operators will use those tools to compete, partner, or continue leaving the segment to specialists. Cross-border communication apps have already shown that the demand exists. The operator opportunity is to treat migrant and diaspora communication as a designed proposition for a defined audience, not as prepaid international calling plans or a legacy international calling line managed at the edge of the core business.

The communities that international calling apps were built for were never hard to find. They were simply not treated as a priority.

Press Release

Major global sporting events have always attracted opportunistic fraud. The 2026 FIFA World Cup, played across the United States, Canada, and Mexico, is no exception. Every major cybersecurity vendor, and the FBI itself, has published warnings about the surge in FIFA-branded scam domains ahead of the tournament. That coverage has focused almost entirely on fan-facing fraud such as fake ticket sites, counterfeit merchandise stores, and phishing emails targeting supporters. But what CUJO AI’s Security Research Laboratory has unearthed is a separate, targeted campaign employing fake FIFA job portals designed to harvest corporate credentials from would-be job applicants. 

The targeting mechanism no one is talking about 

The researchers identified 21 domains posing as FIFA recruitment pages. These sites presented as professional-looking careers portals, carrying official FIFA branding, stolen recruiter profiles with photographs and job titles, and an invitation to schedule a 30-minute phone call via Google Calendar (Figure 1). Examples included fifa-careerhub[.]com, fifa-careerportal[.]com, and fifajobs[.]com. 

Figure 1: A fake FIFA recruitment portal presenting official branding, a stolen recruiter identity, and a Google Calendar booking prompt. 

When attempting to sign in with a personal email address, the form returned the message “Please use your work or business email” (Figure 2). Personal email providers that triggered this response included: gmail.com, googlemail.com, yahoo.com, msn.com, icloud.com, live.com, hotmail.com, outlook.com, protonmail.com, and aol.com. This mechanism was clearly designed to coerce victims into exposing their corporate login credentials and is inline with the campaign’s objective to access corporate Google Workspace accounts. 

Figure 2: The email validation error returned when a personal email address is submitted. The JavaScript filter accepts only work or business email domains. 

What happens after the email check passes 

Applicants who passed the email check were then sent to a page impersonating a Google Calendar booking interface, where they were prompted to sign in with their Google Workspace account. This page hosted a malicious sign-in service that then sent the victim’s login credentials to a backend server hosted on “fifa2026back”. The backend domain was accessed via an obfuscated string that replaced each letter “a” with the characters “eq”, a technique commonly used to avoid detection by automated keyword-matching systems. 

Victims were likely directed to these pages via social media posts and phishing messages framed as outreach from FIFA recruiting contacts. Research published by Group-IB covering the broader 2026 FIFA fraud landscape documents similar referral mechanisms across multiple campaigns targeting the tournament. 

WHOIS records for the 21 identified domains revealed that most were registered via name.com between April and May 2026. All registrant countries in the dataset were the United States. 

By the time of CUJO AI’s analysis, most of the domains had been replaced by parking pages serving generic search links through a commercial domain monetisation service (Figure 3). This pattern is common to short-lived phishing campaigns where infrastructure is stood down after the active window closes, with registered domains held for future use or left to generate residual ad revenue. 

Figure 3: A parked page returned by one of the identified domains, indicating the active campaign phase had concluded. 

A broader pattern: the same kit, different brands 

The phishing kit deployed in this operation was not specific to FIFA. The same infrastructure and approach have been used in campaigns impersonating Heineken, Hilton, Coca-Cola, Netflix, PepsiCo, Delta, and Spotify, each using a different stolen recruiter identity sourced from LinkedIn. Arctic Wolf identified at least ten FIFA-specific phishing domains active as of late May 2026. 

The timing of domain registrations is shown in Figure 4, based on WHOIS creation dates across the identified domain set. The concentration in April and May 2026 aligns with a measurable increase in FIFA-related threat traffic observed across CUJO AI-protected networks during the same period. 

Figure 4: FIFA-related scam domain registrations per month, based on WHOIS creation dates. 

The operator’s position: visibility before the credential is submitted 

DNS lookups to these fake job portals, and the subsequent traffic to credential-harvesting backends, passed through network operator infrastructure regardless of whether the operator was aware of the campaign. Every subscriber who searched for a FIFA job and clicked on one of these domains generated a DNS query on the operator’s network before any interaction with the malicious site had taken place. 

This is precisely where the benefits of network-layer intelligence shine. Operators who can see DNS resolution patterns in real time, and who have access to aggregated threat signals across large network footprints, are afforded the opportunity to identify and block these domains before a single credential is entered. Operators without that visibility are dependent on endpoint security, which in a BYOD or remote-work context may not be deployed on the device the employee is using when they fall for the scam. 

Regulatory pressure is moving in the same direction with NIS2 and the UK’s Online Safety Act both pushing operators toward more active roles in the detection and blocking of harmful traffic on their networks. 

What this campaign reveals 

For operators, the takeaway of our research is that phishing campaigns are becoming more selective, more targeted, and more focused on corporate access than ever before. 

Every interaction with these domains began on the operator’s network. Long before credentials were entered, DNS requests, domain lookups, and traffic patterns provided signals that a campaign was active. Operators with visibility into those signals have an opportunity to disrupt attacks before they reached enterprise accounts. 

The 2026 FIFA World Cup will be remembered for the matches played on the field. But for network operators and security teams, it may also be remembered as a case study in how modern phishing campaigns identify, qualify, and target victims long before credential thefts occur.