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IBM Survey Reveals K-12 AI Readiness Gap and Launches Fellowship IBM announced new U.S. research examining AI readiness in K-12 schools, revealing that AI adoption is outpacing preparedness. The study, commissioned by IBM and conducted by Morning Consult, found that while AI is routine in secondary classrooms, only 20% of educators have received extensive training.
Orange Launches ReuNION Subsea Cable to Boost Africa Link Orange has announced the ReuNION submarine cable project, connecting La Reunion to South Africa. This next-generation system features 16 fiber pairs, each capable of 20 Tbps, designed to improve latency and diversify international connectivity. Co-financed by the European Union, the project ensures long-term network resilience and upgrades existing infrastructure.
AI Economics are Rapidly Reshaping Where Developers Buy AI Juniper Research has revealed that Chinese AI models are up to 90% cheaper to run than US alternatives, causing a significant shift in the AI market. This cost advantage poses an existential risk to Western AI infrastructure financing, as US labs' share of work on OpenRouter has dropped from 70% to 30% in one year. While Western labs still lead in accuracy for complex tasks, the rapid improvement of cheaper Chinese open-weight models threatens to converge these markets.
Comcast Tech Solutions Debuts Next-Gen AI Video Apps for Media Building on its VideoAI platform., Comcast Technology Solutions launched next-gen AI-powered video workflow applications for broadcasters, content owners, streaming providers, and operators. These applications manage and monetize entire content libraries with premium processing, including video verticalization, localization, smart chapters, metadata enrichment, and intelligent clip generation.
Toptana Breaks Ground on Washington Cable Landing Station Toptana Technologies, an Indigenous-owned telecommunications infrastructure company, announced groundbreaking plans for a new cable landing station on Washington's Pacific coast. This facility will significantly expand international connectivity between the Pacific Northwest and Asia-Pacific markets, serving as the Washington landing point for the AWS-owned Sta'O'Nuk subsea cable system.
Ericsson and FIS Simplify Wallet-Led Digital Financial Services Ericsson and global financial technology company FIS are collaborating to simplify the deployment of wallet-led digital financial services. This partnership aims to pre-integrate FIS fintech capabilities into the Ericsson Fintech Platform, creating a combined full-stack, enterprise-grade platform.
Nokia Launches Saudi R&D Center for AI Network Automation and 6G Nokia has announced the opening of its inaugural research and development center in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. This move aims to accelerate the development of AI-powered network automation and orchestration software, catering to customers both within the Kingdom and globally. The center will specialize in advanced technologies like Service Management and Orchestration (SMO), Self-Organizing Networks (SON), Autopilot, and rApps, with a strong focus on AI-native 6G development.
Hyperscalers Create Demand for Midwest Dark Fiber Light Source Communications (LSC) secured its second hyperscale tenant for the Tulsa-St. Louis dark fiber route. This validates surging Midwest demand, making Tulsa a primary data center hub for AI workloads. The network, 100% underground with in-line amplifiers, is purpose-built for AI. This marks LSC's third major network build this year, expanding its Central U.S. footprint.
More Businesses Deploy Identity & Access Management to Thwart AI Threats Juniper Research predicts over 88 million businesses globally will deploy Identity & Access Management (IAM) services by 2031, a 30%+ increase from 2026. This growth is driven by IAM's evolution against AI threats and the rise of non-human identities like AI agents, making IAM vital for managing cybersecurity risk. Market leaders are prioritizing continuous identity governance.
Ribbon Unveils New Routers for Critical Infrastructure Utilities Ribbon Communications has expanded its critical infrastructure portfolio, introducing a new generation of routers designed to modernize utility operational networks. These advanced solutions deliver expanded routing, automation, security, and synchronization capabilities, enabling utilities to confidently evolve their grids while maintaining reliability and protecting essential services.
stc and Ericsson to Expand Saudi 5G Ericsson and stc group have signed a multi-year agreement at LEAP 2026 to significantly expand stc's 5G network across Saudi Arabia. This strategic partnership will introduce new network sites, enhance existing capacity, and deploy the world's first commercial Ericsson Radio 4496.
DE-CIX and Microsoft Elevate Global AI Cloud Connectivity DE-CIX announced georedundant connectivity to Microsoft Azure across North America, Europe, and Asia. The Azure ExpressRoute Metro solution provides dual-homed connections for high availability of critical AI workloads. This resilient architecture is now available at DE-CIX exchanges in New York, Frankfurt, Madrid, Amsterdam, and Singapore. DE-CIX operates 29 on-ramps to Azure in 24 cities worldwide.
Mixx SxC Connector Boosts Fiber Density Fourfold Mixx Technologies launched its SxC Connector, an optical solution for high-radix scale-up and multi-petabit connectivity in hyperscale AI infrastructure. It terminates up to 24,576 fibers in a single rack unit, providing four times the fiber density of current platforms. The connector uses consistent core technology across the optical signal chain, supporting current and next-generation lane rates and optical power without redesign.
NVIDIA and MediaTek Expand AI Computing Platforms Partnership NVIDIA and MediaTek announced a deepening of their collaboration across AI infrastructure, local AI computing, and automotive platforms. MediaTek will adopt NVIDIA's NVLink Fusion platform for custom XPUs, with NVIDIA investing $3.5 billion in MediaTek convertible bonds. The partnership also extends to RTX Spark and DGX Spark PC chips.
HUMAIN and KORA Forge AI-Native OS Partnership HUMAIN and KORA partnered to co-develop HUMAIN OS, an enterprise-grade, AI-native Linux operating system. This platform integrates AI directly into the computing stack, driven by intelligence, context, and user intent. It will orchestrate AI workloads across devices, enterprise environments, and cloud infrastructure, based on privacy and cost. An on-device intelligence layer is also under development, targeting a 26-billion-parameter model on Qualcomm NPUs for local AI processing.
Saudi Arabia AI Infrastructure to Deploy 1 GW by 2030 AMD, Cisco, and HUMAIN have launched live AI infrastructure in Saudi Arabia, leveraging AMD Instinct MI355X GPUs and Cisco Silicon One-based AI networking. This initial deployment is part of a larger joint venture aiming to deploy up to 1 GW of AI infrastructure by 2030, with the next phase beginning in 2027. The collaboration seeks to build an open, large-scale AI platform, offering GPU-as-a-service and expanding the Kingdom's role in global AI innovation.
Fortinet Offers Free High School Cybersecurity Curriculum Fortinet Training Institute is launching free technical cybersecurity courses for U.S. high school students. This new curriculum provides secondary schools with a no-cost, standards-aligned entry point into a two-year cybersecurity pathway, aiming to build foundational skills and address the growing cybersecurity skills gap from the classroom up.
Falcon Platform Gains CLEAR Human Identity Verification CrowdStrike and CLEAR announced a strategic partnership, integrating CLEAR1's secure identity platform with the CrowdStrike Falcon platform. This links threat detection with high-assurance, person-based verification. It helps organizations verify the human behind unusual activity and make informed security decisions. Attackers exploit legitimate credentials, making trust in the person crucial. Combining Falcon with CLEAR1 verifies devices and humans to stop identity-based attacks.
Global Transformer Monitoring Market Approaching $5 Billion by 2031 MarketsandMarkets projects the global transformer monitoring market to grow from $3.11 billion in 2026 to $4.98 billion by 2031, with a 9.9% CAGR. Market expansion is driven by power companies focusing on transformer reliability and asset health. Advancements in online monitoring, IoT sensors, and data analytics significantly influence this growth. Asia Pacific is expected to register the highest CAGR of 10.8% between 2026 and 2031.
India Telecom Market Eyes INR 954 Billion by FY2030 Frost & Sullivan forecasts India's enterprise telecom market will hit INR 954 billion by FY2030. The firm's India Enterprise Telecom Tracker offers quarterly intelligence on market size, forecasts, and growth opportunities. Cloud adoption, AI investments, and digital transformation are driving this expansion. Enterprise data services, third-party data centers, and cloud communication services are key growth segments. Third-party data centers are projected to be the fastest-growing segment.
PSE&G Boosts Grid Reliability 50% for Hurricane Season Public Service Electric & Gas (NYSE: PEG) reported significant reliability improvements ahead of peak hurricane season. The utility achieved a 50% reliability boost on 20 upgraded circuits by replacing nearly 22,000 poles. Neighborhood electric circuits are now 37% more resilient and 31% more reliable. Circuits from the Infrastructure Advancement Program show 22% fewer outages. Six new high-capacity 13kV stations have been completed since 2023, boosting capacity.
MWFN and Fiberpath to Build 1200-Mile Midwest Fiber Corridor Midwest Fiber Networks and Midwest Fiberpath have announced an agreement to develop and commercialize a 1,200-mile fiber corridor across the Midwest. This strategic infrastructure project will enhance long-haul connectivity and route diversity, linking major markets including Chicago, Omaha, Minneapolis, and Kansas City. MWFN will oversee the commercialization of connectivity services, including conduit, dark fiber, and lit services, utilizing a right-of-way corridor provided by Hawkeye Land Co.
Montana Launches First AI-Ready 800G Network with Ciena Tech Vision Net has launched the Discovery Network, Montana's first AI-Ready Network, leveraging Ciena's advanced optical technology. This 800 Gbps capable fiber network will accelerate AI innovation and scientific discovery across the state. It connects key population and innovation centers, setting a new benchmark for AI delivery.
Keystone Optical Networks to Invest $75M in Laser Light Laser Light Holdings announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement under which Keystone Optical Network, LLC has committed to invest up to $75 million in Laser Light to support next generation digital infrastructure and advance global connectivity to meet the demands of AI and the expanding global economy.
Sabey Commits $4.25B to Indianapolis Data Center Campus Sabey Data Centers commits $4.25 billion to a 130-acre, 1M sq ft data center campus in Indianapolis. The project includes sustainable features like closed-loop cooling and a new electrical substation, with Sabey covering all utility costs. Community investments total $30 million for local roads and a new aquatic center, alongside 75 new high-wage jobs.
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IBM Survey Reveals K-12 AI Readiness Gap and Launches Fellowship
IBM announced new U.S. research examining AI readiness in K-12 schools, revealing that AI adoption is outpacing preparedness. The study, commissioned by IBM and conducted by Morning Consult, found that while AI is routine in secondary classrooms, only 20% of educators have received extensive training.

Orange Launches ReuNION Subsea Cable to Boost Africa Link
Orange has announced the ReuNION submarine cable project, connecting La Reunion to South Africa. This next-generation system features 16 fiber pairs, each capable of 20 Tbps, designed to improve latency and diversify international connectivity. Co-financed by the European Union, the project ensures long-term network resilience and upgrades existing infrastructure.

AI Economics are Rapidly Reshaping Where Developers Buy AI
Juniper Research has revealed that Chinese AI models are up to 90% cheaper to run than US alternatives, causing a significant shift in the AI market. This cost advantage poses an existential risk to Western AI infrastructure financing, as US labs' share of work on OpenRouter has dropped from 70% to 30% in one year. While Western labs still lead in accuracy for complex tasks, the rapid improvement of cheaper Chinese open-weight models threatens to converge these markets.

Comcast Tech Solutions Debuts Next-Gen AI Video Apps for Media
Building on its VideoAI platform., Comcast Technology Solutions launched next-gen AI-powered video workflow applications for broadcasters, content owners, streaming providers, and operators. These applications manage and monetize entire content libraries with premium processing, including video verticalization, localization, smart chapters, metadata enrichment, and intelligent clip generation.

Toptana Breaks Ground on Washington Cable Landing Station
Toptana Technologies, an Indigenous-owned telecommunications infrastructure company, announced groundbreaking plans for a new cable landing station on Washington's Pacific coast. This facility will significantly expand international connectivity between the Pacific Northwest and Asia-Pacific markets, serving as the Washington landing point for the AWS-owned Sta'O'Nuk subsea cable system.

Ericsson and FIS Simplify Wallet-Led Digital Financial Services
Ericsson and global financial technology company FIS are collaborating to simplify the deployment of wallet-led digital financial services. This partnership aims to pre-integrate FIS fintech capabilities into the Ericsson Fintech Platform, creating a combined full-stack, enterprise-grade platform.

Nokia Launches Saudi R&D Center for AI Network Automation and 6G
Nokia has announced the opening of its inaugural research and development center in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. This move aims to accelerate the development of AI-powered network automation and orchestration software, catering to customers both within the Kingdom and globally. The center will specialize in advanced technologies like Service Management and Orchestration (SMO), Self-Organizing Networks (SON), Autopilot, and rApps, with a strong focus on AI-native 6G development.

Hyperscalers Create Demand for Midwest Dark Fiber
Light Source Communications (LSC) secured its second hyperscale tenant for the Tulsa-St. Louis dark fiber route. This validates surging Midwest demand, making Tulsa a primary data center hub for AI workloads. The network, 100% underground with in-line amplifiers, is purpose-built for AI. This marks LSC's third major network build this year, expanding its Central U.S. footprint.

More Businesses Deploy Identity & Access Management to Thwart AI Threats
Juniper Research predicts over 88 million businesses globally will deploy Identity & Access Management (IAM) services by 2031, a 30%+ increase from 2026. This growth is driven by IAM's evolution against AI threats and the rise of non-human identities like AI agents, making IAM vital for managing cybersecurity risk. Market leaders are prioritizing continuous identity governance.

Ribbon Unveils New Routers for Critical Infrastructure Utilities
Ribbon Communications has expanded its critical infrastructure portfolio, introducing a new generation of routers designed to modernize utility operational networks. These advanced solutions deliver expanded routing, automation, security, and synchronization capabilities, enabling utilities to confidently evolve their grids while maintaining reliability and protecting essential services.

stc and Ericsson to Expand Saudi 5G
Ericsson and stc group have signed a multi-year agreement at LEAP 2026 to significantly expand stc's 5G network across Saudi Arabia. This strategic partnership will introduce new network sites, enhance existing capacity, and deploy the world's first commercial Ericsson Radio 4496.

DE-CIX and Microsoft Elevate Global AI Cloud Connectivity
DE-CIX announced georedundant connectivity to Microsoft Azure across North America, Europe, and Asia. The Azure ExpressRoute Metro solution provides dual-homed connections for high availability of critical AI workloads. This resilient architecture is now available at DE-CIX exchanges in New York, Frankfurt, Madrid, Amsterdam, and Singapore. DE-CIX operates 29 on-ramps to Azure in 24 cities worldwide.

Mixx SxC Connector Boosts Fiber Density Fourfold
Mixx Technologies launched its SxC Connector, an optical solution for high-radix scale-up and multi-petabit connectivity in hyperscale AI infrastructure. It terminates up to 24,576 fibers in a single rack unit, providing four times the fiber density of current platforms. The connector uses consistent core technology across the optical signal chain, supporting current and next-generation lane rates and optical power without redesign.

NVIDIA and MediaTek Expand AI Computing Platforms Partnership
NVIDIA and MediaTek announced a deepening of their collaboration across AI infrastructure, local AI computing, and automotive platforms. MediaTek will adopt NVIDIA's NVLink Fusion platform for custom XPUs, with NVIDIA investing $3.5 billion in MediaTek convertible bonds. The partnership also extends to RTX Spark and DGX Spark PC chips.

HUMAIN and KORA Forge AI-Native OS Partnership
HUMAIN and KORA partnered to co-develop HUMAIN OS, an enterprise-grade, AI-native Linux operating system. This platform integrates AI directly into the computing stack, driven by intelligence, context, and user intent. It will orchestrate AI workloads across devices, enterprise environments, and cloud infrastructure, based on privacy and cost. An on-device intelligence layer is also under development, targeting a 26-billion-parameter model on Qualcomm NPUs for local AI processing.

Saudi Arabia AI Infrastructure to Deploy 1 GW by 2030
AMD, Cisco, and HUMAIN have launched live AI infrastructure in Saudi Arabia, leveraging AMD Instinct MI355X GPUs and Cisco Silicon One-based AI networking. This initial deployment is part of a larger joint venture aiming to deploy up to 1 GW of AI infrastructure by 2030, with the next phase beginning in 2027. The collaboration seeks to build an open, large-scale AI platform, offering GPU-as-a-service and expanding the Kingdom's role in global AI innovation.

Fortinet Offers Free High School Cybersecurity Curriculum
Fortinet Training Institute is launching free technical cybersecurity courses for U.S. high school students. This new curriculum provides secondary schools with a no-cost, standards-aligned entry point into a two-year cybersecurity pathway, aiming to build foundational skills and address the growing cybersecurity skills gap from the classroom up.

Falcon Platform Gains CLEAR Human Identity Verification
CrowdStrike and CLEAR announced a strategic partnership, integrating CLEAR1's secure identity platform with the CrowdStrike Falcon platform. This links threat detection with high-assurance, person-based verification. It helps organizations verify the human behind unusual activity and make informed security decisions. Attackers exploit legitimate credentials, making trust in the person crucial. Combining Falcon with CLEAR1 verifies devices and humans to stop identity-based attacks.

Global Transformer Monitoring Market Approaching $5 Billion by 2031
MarketsandMarkets projects the global transformer monitoring market to grow from $3.11 billion in 2026 to $4.98 billion by 2031, with a 9.9% CAGR. Market expansion is driven by power companies focusing on transformer reliability and asset health. Advancements in online monitoring, IoT sensors, and data analytics significantly influence this growth. Asia Pacific is expected to register the highest CAGR of 10.8% between 2026 and 2031.

India Telecom Market Eyes INR 954 Billion by FY2030
Frost & Sullivan forecasts India's enterprise telecom market will hit INR 954 billion by FY2030. The firm's India Enterprise Telecom Tracker offers quarterly intelligence on market size, forecasts, and growth opportunities. Cloud adoption, AI investments, and digital transformation are driving this expansion. Enterprise data services, third-party data centers, and cloud communication services are key growth segments. Third-party data centers are projected to be the fastest-growing segment.

PSE&G Boosts Grid Reliability 50% for Hurricane Season
Public Service Electric & Gas (NYSE: PEG) reported significant reliability improvements ahead of peak hurricane season. The utility achieved a 50% reliability boost on 20 upgraded circuits by replacing nearly 22,000 poles. Neighborhood electric circuits are now 37% more resilient and 31% more reliable. Circuits from the Infrastructure Advancement Program show 22% fewer outages. Six new high-capacity 13kV stations have been completed since 2023, boosting capacity.

MWFN and Fiberpath to Build 1200-Mile Midwest Fiber Corridor
Midwest Fiber Networks and Midwest Fiberpath have announced an agreement to develop and commercialize a 1,200-mile fiber corridor across the Midwest. This strategic infrastructure project will enhance long-haul connectivity and route diversity, linking major markets including Chicago, Omaha, Minneapolis, and Kansas City. MWFN will oversee the commercialization of connectivity services, including conduit, dark fiber, and lit services, utilizing a right-of-way corridor provided by Hawkeye Land Co.

Montana Launches First AI-Ready 800G Network with Ciena Tech
Vision Net has launched the Discovery Network, Montana's first AI-Ready Network, leveraging Ciena's advanced optical technology. This 800 Gbps capable fiber network will accelerate AI innovation and scientific discovery across the state. It connects key population and innovation centers, setting a new benchmark for AI delivery.

Keystone Optical Networks to Invest $75M in Laser Light
Laser Light Holdings announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement under which Keystone Optical Network, LLC has committed to invest up to $75 million in Laser Light to support next generation digital infrastructure and advance global connectivity to meet the demands of AI and the expanding global economy.

Sabey Commits $4.25B to Indianapolis Data Center Campus
Sabey Data Centers commits $4.25 billion to a 130-acre, 1M sq ft data center campus in Indianapolis. The project includes sustainable features like closed-loop cooling and a new electrical substation, with Sabey covering all utility costs. Community investments total $30 million for local roads and a new aquatic center, alongside 75 new high-wage jobs.

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