And just like that, it’s 2026. But as the new year kicks off, the telecoms industry can reflect on what was, for many, a transformational 2025.

DCD’s review for the end of 2024 focused on 5G, mergers, and cutbacks, and while this year saw more of the same, 2025 saw AI emerge as an even stronger theme across the sector.

Talk of 6G has also gathered pace, long-awaited mergers have been completed, while technologies such as hollow core fiber (HCF) threaten to reshape the future of networks.

In the US, two of the ‘Big Three’ carriers replaced their CEOs, with Verizon appointing Dan Schulman as CEO in October to succeed long-term leader Hans Vestberg, while T-Mobile changed its CEO, appointing Srini Gopalan in place of Mike Sievert the month before.

Nokia reborn

In Europe, Finnish network vendor Nokia had quite the year in 2025.

A change of CEO in April saw Justin Hotard take the hot seat at the telecoms giant. Formerly Intel’s data center executive, Hotard has put a heavy focus on data centers as he looks to help his new employer benefit from the AI boom.

He joined Nokia shortly after the vendor finalized its $2.3 billion acquisition of networking firm Infinera.

But the real headline-grabbing moment this year was arguably delivered in late October when chipmaker giant Nvidia announced it would invest $1bn in Nokia as part of a strategic agreement to push AI networking, in exchange for a 2.9 percent stake in the vendor.

“The next leap in telecom isn’t just from 5G to 6G – it’s a fundamental redesign of the network to deliver AI-powered connectivity, capable of processing intelligence from the data center all the way to the Edge,” said Hotard, declaring that the partnership will “accelerate AI-RAN innovation to put an AI data center into everyone’s pocket.”

With shares in the vendor climbing following this investment, expect more data center-focused partnerships next year.

A diet full of fiber

Meanwhile, the move away from legacy networks such as copper has gathered momentum, both in Europe and the US, paving the way for fiber instead.

In the UK, BT’s Openreach has surpassed 20 million premises with its full fiber build-out, and is on track to reach its 25 million target by the end of next year, while also ramping up its copper phase-out.

But it’s in the US, where the fiber market has entered a boom in the last 18 months, a trend that gathered pace throughout 2025.

AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile have all been very busy building out their respective fiber networks, while also finalizing high-profile acquisitions to grow their respective footprints.

T-Mobile, which only launched its fiber home Internet services in June, has ambitions to reach as many as 15 million locations by 2030. This year, the carrier completed joint venture (JV) acquisitions of fiber provider Lumos and fiber-to-the-home provider Metronet, working with investment firm KKR.

Verizon is still pushing to complete its $20bn Frontier Communications deal, which is expected to close next year.

But it is AT&T that has gone the biggest so far, building out its fiber network to more than 30 million locations. By 2030, AT&T aims to reach 60 million locations across the US. The telco has also been growing through acquisitions, such as the planned $5.75bn purchase of Lumen’s mass-market fiber business, which it expects to complete next year.

CEO John Stankey is confident that the carrier will hit the lofty target, though some industry analysts are not so sure, citing a lack of skilled workers as a big barrier to the rollout.

Feature: The US fiber frenzy

Three’s a crowd

Vodafone and Three finally completed their long-awaited merger in the UK this year, more than two-and-a-half years after the deal was first announced.

The merger has created the UK’s biggest mobile network operator, while £11bn ($14.7bn) has been pledged to expand VodafoneThree’s network in the coming years, including ambitions to hit 99 percent 5G Standalone coverage by 2030.

Significantly, it takes the total network operators in the UK market from four down to three.

Across the Atlantic, the US market is already a three-carrier environment, and plans for a fourth, in the form of EchoStar’s Dish, are now dead in the water, following high-profile deals to sell spectrum to rivals. EchoStar claims it has been pressured to sell following the FCC’s review into the company’s usage of spectrum.

AT&T snapped up $23bn worth of spectrum from EchoStar in August, and is already deploying this spectrum to bolster its 5G network. EchoStar also sold $17bn worth of spectrum to SpaceX, covering EchoStar’s AWS-4 (Advanced Wireless Spectrum) and H-block spectrum licenses.

The company wasn’t the only one to miss out on the wireless carrier market. UScellular finally sold off its wireless assets to T-Mobile, plus spectrum to Verizon and AT&T, and has pivoted to become a telecoms tower company instead.

Spanish giant Telefónica has also been notably slimming down. The arrival of Marc Murtra as chair has meant a very different strategy, one that has seen most of its Latin American business divested.

Throughout 2025, the telco has exited or agreed to exit from several markets in the region, including Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. A departure from Chile is also being explored.

The firm plans to maintain a presence in Brazil, but its main focus will be elsewhere. “Our priority will be Europe, Europe, and Europe,” said Murtra.

Infrastructure under attack

The unwanted trend of attacks against telecoms infrastructure reared its ugly head again throughout 2025.

Copper theft continued to drive this issue for telcos across the world, causing network outages and frustration in equal measure.

Companies such as Openreach are regularly battling the problem, while tower infrastructure is targeted for whatever copper is available for vandals. The issue is a global one, and thieves do not discriminate, often cutting fiber links in efforts to access valuable copper.

Indeed, Tom Monaghan, executive vice president for field operations, Charter Communications, noted that the issue is a daily problem for the company, labelling the attacks as acts of “domestic terrorism.”

“There’s not a day that goes by at Charter that we don’t get one [cable cut],” added Monaghan. “This used to happen in the dark of night [but] it’s getting brash, and they’re doing it during the day, and over a period of time. It affects millions of customers.

Charter is one of many companies lobbying for tougher punishments in the US to deter vandalism against critical network infrastructure.

Telcos utilizing AI

While the last few years have been dominated by telcos bigging up the potential of AI, 2025 saw some of that potential realized.

Indeed, in relation to the attacks on infrastructure, Elad Nafshi, executive vice president and chief network officer at Comcast, notes that AI has been pivotal to helping the company to fight back more efficiently against criminals.

During SCTE TechExpo, Nafshi explained that Comcast has pushed hard to integrate AI to speed up response times against fiber cuts.

“We’ve invested a lot of money and a tremendous amount of technology innovation, including putting in place fiber monitoring with AI operations that monitor more than 800 kilometers (497 miles) of fiber across our footprint, and are capable of detecting fiber cuts within 120 seconds with pinpoint precision where the fiber cut occurred,” he said.

He added that Comcast can automatically dispatch fiber restoration crews to the impacted location. Because of this, Nafshi said the company is able to reduce the outage times “by hours.”

Meanwhile, Indosat CEO Vikram Sinha explained to DCD that the Indonesian telco has been able to use AI for good as well, in the fight against spam callers and scammers, as the carrier continues to push for “AI for everyone.

But is AI responsible for more job cuts?

One of the inevitable negative impacts of AI’s emergence is on the workforce, and a number of telcos outlined plans to cut staffing numbers this year.

Verizon’s new CEO Schulman wasted no time in wielding the axe on staff, confirming plans to cut more than 13,000 jobs at the US giant. The cuts were suggested during his first earnings call, when he called for a “full reboot”, led by AI.

“We will be a simpler, leaner, and scrappier business. This work is overdue and will be multi-year and an ongoing way of life for us,” Schulman said in October, noting a desire to utilize AI to drive these cost efficiency savings.

But Verizon isn’t the only one to cut jobs. Telefónica is set to axe up to 7,000 roles, while Nokia, Telia, and Liberty Global, co-owner of Virgin Media O2, have also announced plans to reduce workforce numbers.

BT’s chief Allison Kirkby also reiterated that AI will likely result in more job losses at the telco by the end of the decade, with her comments coming two years after BT said it planned to cut 55,000 positions.

Starlink Mobile to step up its carrier fight

It was another big year for mobile satellite, with numerous launches of direct-to-device (D2D) messaging services.

2025 saw T-Mobile and Elon Musk’s SpaceX finally launch nationwide satellite services in the US, around three years after forming a partnership.

And the year ends with SpaceX filing to copyright Starlink Mobile. Does Musk see an opportunity to offer carrier services? That’s one to look out for in 2026.

Other satellite operators, including AST SpaceMobile, continued to carve out notable partnerships in the space.

Elsewhere, outages were also common in 2025, highlighting the greater need for resiliency. However, none has been quite as problematic as the Triple Zero outages in Australia in the second half of last year.

Optus suffered several, including a major one, during which four people lost their lives when they were unable to connect to Australia’s emergency network operator. Optus CEO Stephen Rue has apologized, but insisted he won’t leave despite heavy scrutiny, as Australia’s federal government told the carrier it can expect major financial penalties.

Rue only took over as CEO at Optus last November, replacing Kelly Bayer, who resigned amid the fallout from a previous outage that lasted more than 14 hours in November 2023.

It’s not just Optus that has been impacted by this, however. TPG Telecom also reported two potential deaths due to an issue connecting older Samsung mobile handsets to Triple Zero.

Will we see some progress with BEAD, the US federal program that aims to provide universal broadband connectivity for Americans, at some point next year? At the time of writing, 32 US states and territories have had their final approvals for the program approved by the NTIA.

It follows years of delays and a restructuring of the $42.5bn program by the Trump administration earlier this summer, which has opened the program up to satellite players, too.

And finally, MVNOs have figured prominently this year, with high-profile names and markets, such as fintech pushing into the sector to provide mobile data plans.

DCD covered this in the latest issue of the magazine. With the likes of President Trump and YouTubers such as Mr Beast showing an interest in this market, further entrants are tipped for next year.

If you believe CCS Insight, then a famous pop star could also get in on the act in the coming years. It’s definitely one to watch