Indian operator Vodafone Idea (Vi) has expanded its strategic partnership with tech giant Ericsson to modernise its postpaid services while supporting its ongoing network expansion across the country.

Since 2024, Ericsson has deployed new 5G and 4G sites, layer additions on existing sites and HPSC (high-performance small cell) towers across ten circles.

Ericsson says it will continue to strengthen Vi’s network footprint through deployment and integration of new network sites, capacity augmentation, and coverage expansion. These efforts will lead to enhancing indoor coverage, improving data capacity, and supporting Vi’s ongoing efforts for expanding 5G and 4G connectivity.

Also, building on the successful migration of hundreds of millions of Vi prepaid subscribers to Ericsson Charging in 2023, Vi has now chosen to deploy cloud-native Ericsson Charging to support and expand its postpaid subscriber segment and deliver innovative postpaid offers.

This deal expands Ericsson’s existing footprint in Vi’s prepaid subscriber segment to include the postpaid business as well, making Ericsson a major pan-India supplier of online charging solutions for both prepaid and postpaid customers.

The new agreement also empowers Vi with a selection of new Ericsson Telco IT AI Apps, giving it greater control and flexibility over its charging platform and ensuring it can deliver reliable, efficient and future-proof services to its subscribers. Vi will leverage AI applications including Anomaly Detection for Charging Applications, Order Fallout Detection and Prediction, Capacity Forecast for Telco Cloud Stack and Intelligent Usage Analysis for Charging to enhance service delivery, improve customer experience, and drive efficiency.

Ericsson says its Convergent Charging System will enable real time charging for voice, VOLTE, SMS and data services across consumer and enterprise businesses. The new system will be more flexible, scalable and cost efficient and will allow Vi to launch new services faster. The upgrade will not only improve operational efficiency and customer experience but also help prepare Vi’s network for 5G standalone.

A demonstration of satellite-enabled voice calls over a 3GPP-compliant non-terrestrial satellite network for connected vehicles, is take place at Mobile World Congress 2026 – with the help of a very impressive partnership.

Satellite broadband systems provider Viasat and Cubic³, which supplies global connectivity solutions for software-defined vehicles and other high-value mobile assets, in association with wireless technologies giant Qualcomm Technologies. and Fraunhofer IIS, a world leader in application research, have announced a demonstration that will showcase a voice call conducted over satellite, enabling vehicles to maintain voice connectivity when cellular networks are patchy or unavailable.

This milestone, as it is described, will show that voice communications – a critical benefit for driver safety and emergency access – can operate reliably beyond the reach of terrestrial networks.

The demo brings together several advanced technologies to demonstrate how always-on connectivity can be integrated into modern software-defined vehicles (SDVs). This includes Viasat’s highly reliable satellite network, Cubic³’s global connectivity management platform (CMP) and hybrid eSIM, Qualcomm Technologies’ Snapdragon Auto 5G Modem-RF Gen 2 platform, and the NESC voice codec from Fraunhofer IIS, with additional technical support from Amarisoft.

By extending voice services beyond cellular coverage, say the partners, automakers can ensure drivers remain connected for emergency assistance and critical safety applications, regardless of location. The demonstration also lays the foundation for future NTN-enabled vehicles as consumer expectations on data services increase and technology evolves to meet growing demand.

The collaboration builds on the partnership announced by Viasat and Cubic³ in June 2025, which combined satellite and terrestrial connectivity to support global vehicle communications. Cubic³ also intends to work with Viasat to bring future 5GNR satellite services, such as video streaming and seamless voice calls, to the automotive market.

These future applications would leverage Equatys, a jointly held entity being founded by Viasat and Space42. Equatys is designed to enable seamless 5G connectivity across satellite and terrestrial networks, extending services to billions of people and devices globally.

Viasat, Cubic³, and Qualcomm Technologies are active members of the 5GAA (5G Automotive Association), working with industry partners to advance global connectivity standards for the automotive sector.

The global smartphone market is forecast to decline by 13% in 2026, as a prolonged memory chip shortage weighs heavily on production and margins, according to analyst house IDC.

IDC predicts that shipments will total around 1.12 billion units this year, marking the lowest annual figure in more than a decade. The revised outlook represents a sharp downgrade from the firm’s November forecast of. 0.9% decline, issued before the full scale of the memory supply crunch became clear.

Francisco Jeronimo, IDC’s Vice President of Worldwide Client Devices, described the shortage as more than a temporary disruption.

“This is not a temporary squeeze,” he said, calling it a “tsunami-like shock” impacting the entire consumer electronics industry.

Android vendors, particularly those focused on lower-priced devices, are expected to face the most significant pressure. Rising component costs are likely to erode margins in the budget segment, while premium manufacturers are seen as better positioned to absorb higher input costs.

“Apple and Samsung are better positioned to navigate this crisis,” Jeronimo said. “As smaller and low-end-positioned Android vendors struggle with rising costs, Apple and Samsung could not only weather the storm but potentially expand market share as the competitive landscape tightens.”

Nabila Popal, Senior Research Director at IDC, said the impact would extend beyond short-term shipment declines.

“The memory crisis will cause more than a temporary decline; it marks a structural reset of the entire market, fundamentally reshaping long-term total addressable market, the vendor landscape and the product mix,” she said.

IDC expects consolidation among smaller manufacturers as volumes contract. Average selling prices are projected to rise 14% year-on-year to US$523 in 2026, reflecting the upward pressure on component costs.

Memory chipset prices are forecast to stabilise by mid-2027, but IDC cautioned they are unlikely to return to previous levels. As a result, smartphones priced below US$100 could become “permanently uneconomical”, according to Popal.

Regionally, emerging markets – where entry-level smartphones remain in higher demand – are expected to see the steepest shipment declines. The Middle East and Africa is forecast to contract by 20.6% year-on-year, while China and Asia-Pacific (excluding China and Japan) are projected to fall by 10.5% and 13.1% respectively.

Looking further ahead, IDC anticipates a modest 2% recovery in global shipments by mid-2027 as chipset prices stabilise, followed by a stronger rebound of 5.2% in 2028.

This Industry Viewpoint was authored by Josh Whitehurst, Head of Product, First Orion

For years, branded calling was a “nice-to-have,” viewed as an incremental improvement layered on top of outbound communications. That era is over. Branded calling has reached a tipping point, not necessarily in overall adoption volume, but in customer expectations. … [visit site to read more]

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has reportedly decided to take a wait-and-see approach on whether 5G network slicing would violate its regulations on net neutrality.

According to a report from ETTelecom on Thursday, Indian telcos have asked TRAI to revisit its net neutrality rules and make any necessary changes to allow network slicing, which they see as not only a key characteristic of 5G, but a potential generator of new revenues.

Network slicing enables 5G standalone operators to create premium dedicated fast lanes for customers willing to pay more, be it for mission-critical industrial use cases or bandwidth-intensive consumer apps like livestreaming and e-sports.

Critics say that network slicing is another form of differentiated quality of service that they claim goes against the principle of net neutrality, which guarantees open, non-discriminatory access to the internet.

Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel – both of which plan to leverage 5G’s network slicing capabilities – as well as 5G telecoms vendors like Ericsson, have told TRAI that network slicing should be allowed under its net neutrality rules as long as slicing services don’t degrade data speeds for lower-tier users or block users from accessing specific content, the report said.

A TRAI advisor at a panel discussion on Wednesday said the regulator intends to see how network slicing services play out in practice before deciding if they comply with its net neutrality policy, the report said.

That potentially puts telcos in a bind, as it means they would have to launch 5G slicing services with the risk that TRAI might later decide such services violate the policy.

The debate over 5G slicing and net neutrality has come up in other regulatory jurisdictions. In the European Union, the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC) is currently holding a public consultation on whether the EU’s net neutrality regulations already allow network slicing, and – if not – whether they should be updated to do so.

In the US, the Federal Communications Commission’s net neutrality rules were repealed in 2017 during US President Donald Trump’s first term. When the Biden administration reinstated the rules in 2024, the FCC said that 5G slicing would violate net neutrality. However, a US court struck down the reinstated rules at the start of 2025.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has made a number of recommendations relating to the next auction of spectrum in India. But will they be accepted?

Earlier this week, TRAI publicised a large number of suggestions, apparently based on comments received from stakeholders during a consultation process, and its own further analysis, the most significant of which included the auctioning of the entire available spectrum in the upcoming sale – that is, spectrum in the 600MHz, 800MHz, 900MHz, 1800MHz, 2100MHz, 2300MHz, 2500MHz, 3300MHz, and 26GHz frequency bands.

That’s about 11,790MHz of spectrum, valued at about INR2.1 trillion (US$23.1 billion), more than 2022’s US$17 billion, but a lot more than the 2024 sale that raised only US$1.30 billion when Reliance Jio emerged as the sole bidder for the 700MHz spectrum.

Among its many other recommendations, TRAI suggested lower entry barriers for new entrants (including reduced net-worth requirements in some areas) and spectrum caps to safeguard competition – though this would not apply to any telecom carrier that has already acquired spectrum that exceeds the cap. 

After the 2022 auction, the 600MHz range reportedly contributes to nearly 62% of the overall spectrum availability with a reduced base price of up to 17%. TRAI suggested that while the spectrum charge on 600MHz may be levied for a period of 20 years, the validity period of the spectrum should be increased by four years to 24 years and that there should be no rollout obligations for the initial four years. Some commentators have suggested that this may have something to do with device availability.

TRAI also advocated reserving the 6GHz (upper) band for mobile telephony services and added that the available airwaves bands in the 6425-6725MHz and 7025-7125MHz should not be put up for sale until after the WRC-27, the ITU World Radiocommunication Conference, at which a number of decisions regarding spectrum usage worldwide will be made.

TRAI pointed out that a number of former Indian operators are dealing with insolvency and said that any spectrum they hold should be made available for the forthcoming spectrum auction. It also proposed a reduction of up to 10% in the spectrum cost from the auction-determined price for all licensed service areas (LSA) across frequency bands. LSAs include remote, rural or underdeveloped regions.

The bottom line, across the entire auction, is that spectrum could be close to 20% cheaper than prices recommended in 2022.

According to the Economic Times news service, the Union Minister of Communications Jyotiraditya Scindia has said that the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) would take a call on the spectrum auction following a review of the regulator’s recommendations – of which there are many more on TRAI’s website. The DoT will announce the actual dates for the live auction in the coming months.

Spectrum auctions worldwide are apparently attracting less interest recently. There has also been a perception that Indian prices have been too high in recent auctions. If TRAI’s recommendations are accepted does this mean pressure to get the spectrum sold could outweigh the – possibly unrealistic – desire to get a good price?

Global fintech platform Pine Labs has announced that it has won multiple contracts from three of the leading oil and marketing companies (OMCs) in India: Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL), Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) and Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL).

Pine Labs will be entrusted with deploying, managing, and maintaining the digital payments infrastructure at petrol pumps and merchant outlets across India.

These are described as multi-year contracts aimed at leveraging the expertise of Pine Labs in managing the payment rails for swifter, secure, seamless money movements at the point of sale.

This is not a small undertaking: it involves nearly 130,000 digital payments acceptance devices to be deployed and maintained across India.

Pine Labs will also be managing IOCL’s loyalty rewards platform called XTRAPOWER, in use by hundreds of thousands of fleet operators in India. The programme, built on robust API integrations, caters to fuel management, fleet analytics, trip management, and secure chip and PIN digital payment transactions including card, mobile and RFID payments.

B Amrish Rau, CEO, Pine Labs, explains: “By combining our tech prowess with the massive retail footprints of top OMCs in India, we are enabling a tech-first and robust payments infra and a world-class prepaid loyalty rewards ecosystem. The software-first approach of Pine Labs will ensure faster product feature rollouts, minimal on-site intervention, and a unified payments and rewards/loyalty platform for accelerated digitisation of fuel retail commerce in India.”

Pine Labs operates in India and a growing number of international markets including Malaysia, UAE, Singapore, Australia, USA, and Africa.

It’s certainly been busy in India of late. As we reported at the time, in December API-enabled technology platform Setu, owned by Pine Labs, announced the launch of what it calls India’s first agentic bill-payments experience.

In February meanwhile, Pine Labs announced a collaboration with OpenAI to engineer what it called the era of agentic commerce in India. And in late January one of Sri Lanka’s largest listed entities, the Pan Asia Banking Corporation (PABC), and Pine Labs announced a partnership that will see the Pine Labs implementing an end-to-end card management platform for the bank.