In partnership with

You won’t find a better source for Market Intelligence about Telecom, Space Communications and AI, all in one place, for free, anywhere.

Join thousands of weekly readers.

If you’re enjoying this newsletter, please consider sharing it with others!

In Today’s Issue

Goodbye, Sookie 😢

This issue is dedicated to Sookie, our 16-year old cat who left us today (June 19th) for the big kitty litter box in the sky. She had some recent kidney issues that continued to worsen past the point of being treatable any further.

Sookie was around for more than half of our kids lives, and ended up being my daughter’s cat, having moved out with her a number of years ago.

It doesn’t matter if it’s a cat or a dog, that final day and that last drive to the vet is always the hardest, and most awful part of having a pet - even though it’s the most unselfish thing you can do for them when the time comes.

What’s Happening On Earth?

🇨🇦 Building Canada’s digital future starts with the right policies - Our new prime minister has said repeatedly that it’s time to build. We couldn’t agree more. But building requires a strong foundation — and that starts with the right policies.

My Take: We need to replace red tape with real leadership before opportunities slip away to faster moving global competitors.

🇨🇦 Pretending you believe in investment while seemingly giving up on investment - I have recently been struggling to understand what Key Performance Indicators the government, and its departments and agencies, are using to track unsubsidized investment trends in the telecom infrastructure sector in Canada. Part of my confusion is that even if you use a fairly visible metric like capital expenditure, which shows a decline in capital investment amongst all of the major network builders, the broader government keeps perpetuating the fabulists' message that "we are doing everything in our power to get shovels in the ground and ensure that Canadian companies invest in expanding coverage". As much as I would like to confirm that that is the case, I am afraid that I cannot.

My Take: Is it like a coach shouting words of encouragement from the sidelines, but refusing to put any players on the field?

🇨🇦 Ontario government plan to connect everyone to high-speed internet by end of 2025 might be too lofty a goal: CRRBC panel - The Ontario government’s goal of connecting everyone in the province to high-speed internet by the end of this year is facing challenges, say people familiar with connecting rural and remote communities.

My Take: It’s the great debate. See my interview with Susan Church and Gord Reynolds on the topic prior to the CRRBC

Can Google Cloud meet the autonomous network needs of telcos? - Angelo Libertucci, global head of industry for telecom at Google Cloud, discusses the hyperscaler’s recently unveiled Autonomous Network Operations framework and addresses the all-important issues of domain knowledge, sovereignty and cloud platform availability.

Nokia unleashes new AI army to grow telco automation - Google Cloud appears to be cleaning up in the network automation arena. A week after announcing a deal to host Ericsson’s new cloud-based 5G core stack, Nokia revealed a new Autonomous Network Fabric that – you guessed it – can be deployed globally using Google Distributed Cloud infrastructure.

Nokia foresees highly autonomous networks as soon as 2026 - Networks that require minimal human input may take shape from next year, according to Nokia's Raghav Sahgal.

My Take: Intent-based networking has been the goal for a long time. The ecosystem has to be larger than Google, though. As part of the learning experience something will eventually go very wrong. The recovery will be the proof point.

Trump Organization launches mobile phone service - The Trump Organization today launched the Trump Mobile phone service, complete with promises of a “sleek, gold smartphone” to be sold to consumers.

My Take: Ryan Reynolds sold Mint Mobile to T-Mobile for $1.35B. What’s a gaudy gold phone worth? The Smartless podcast guys also recently lanched their own mobile service. Side hustles for everyone.

“Two years of work in two months”: States cope with Trump broadband overhaul - "We had been in position to be making awards this month, but for [the Trump administration's] deliberations and program changes, so it's pretty unfortunate," Butcher told Ars. Established by a 2021 state law, the MCA is a quasi-governmental agency that oversees Maine's BEAD planning and other programs that increase broadband access.

My Take: New barriers. More confusion. The unserved and underserved are the ones who just have to wait longer.

Fiber vendors will keep on moving despite new BEAD rules - Indeed, the rural broadband hype has simmered down for vendors like Adtran, Corning and CommScope, who are instead chasing gains in lucrative areas like long-haul fiber and data center connectivity.

My Take: What will the fallout be during earnings season?

New Senate proposal ties BEAD money to AI regulation - States are still grappling with recent revisions to the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program, and now it seems even more changes could be on the way. A new U.S. Senate bill could force them to choose between BEAD money and AI regulation.

My Take: Isn’t that called coercion, or is it about federal control over innovation, taking the power away from the individual states to do what they feel is best for them?

Blue Planet touts new AI framework for telecom OSS - Telco operation support systems (OSS) are ripe for agentic AI deployments. There's just one problem: operators don't want to be stuck deploying a different agent for each of the siloes they've built over the last 30 years.

My Take: Why not? Agentic AI sounds like the perfect opportunity for a virtual abstract layer synthesizing and actions across the silos?

In the AI era, are telcos ‘moving’ faster? -  Telcos are often accused of being too slow to react and adapt to change and new opportunities, so how are they coping in the breakneck speed environment of the ‘AI era’? Howard Watson, chief security and networks officer at BT group, and Scott Petty, CTO at Vodafone Group, took to the stage here in Copenhagen to argue that, in many ways, their companies have adapted to the pace of change that comes with the widespread adoption of generative AI (GenAI) but also noted that it brings new challenges and many reasons to remain cautious too. 

My Take: GenAI isn’t the driver. AgenticAI and network observability will drive outcomes.

Vintage is for cars, not Wi-Fi: Why retrofits are trending in 2025 - The right connectivity infrastructure and smart technology can “rev up” an aging multifamily property, building them an engine for business success. Stunningly, some 90 percent of renters reported to NMHC last year that they either were interested in high-speed connectivity or outright wouldn’t rent from those without it.

My Take: Of course it’s an ad for a company, but the message makes sense. The same way that buyers of residential properties see access to high-speed services as a big feature tick box, so do people who want to live in MDUs.

🇨🇦 The Town That Started Our Phone Obsession Is Now An Underrated Canadian Destination - Most people know that Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone in the late nineteenth century, but where did this happen? Only a few know that this groundbreaking technology at the time was invented in a small town in Ontario, Canada.

My Take: 1876. Brantford to Paris, Ontario. Also the home of Wayne Gretzky,

Advanced nuclear developer TerraPower closes $650m fundraise, with backing from Nvidia - The Natrium reactor is a 345MWe sodium-cooled fast reactor with a molten salt-based energy storage system. According to the company, through its unique storage system, the technology’s capacity can be boosted to up to 500MWe for more than five and a half hours when required.

My Take: The next generation of nuclear power.

ZTE launches AI-powered digital twin tool for proactive network protection - The Chinese vendor claimed the security tool was able to produce highly realistic simulation waveforms and a digital twin precision of over 95 percent.

My Take: If you call it a digital twin, is that better than calling it a clone?

How Cisco has been quietly retooling for the AI revolution - The networking giant is carving out key networking and security roles for itself within the AI technology stack

My Take: They’re not chasing the hype. They’re being methodical in their approach.

What’s Happening In Space?

What’s in Space This Week?

Starship destroyed in test stand explosion - A SpaceX Starship upper stage being prepared for the company’s next flight exploded June 19 during preparations for a static-fire test. Video from sources such as NASASpaceFlight.com showed the vehicle designated Ship 36, exploded just after midnight Eastern (11 p.m. June 18 local time) while on a test stand at a site known as Massey’s, several kilometers west from the company’s launch pads at Starbase, Texas.

My Take: Kaboom. It’s a test platform, after all.

SpaceX has just released the latest user numbers for Starlink - with 7,500 LoE satellites in orbit, there are now 6 million connected customers globally. This number was 5 million in February 2025 - which equates to more than 9,000 customers signing up per day in the last 100 days

My Take: 9,000 customers per day…

Kymeta’s Breakthrough Multi-Band Antenna Redefines Connectivity - In a world-first, Kymeta, the company reimagining satellite connectivity, today announces a major technological leap: simultaneously operating across both Ku and Ka satellite bands in a single, compact antenna - laying the technical groundwork to enable seamless connectivity across satellite networks.

My Take: So, I guess that means Starlink and Kuiper on the same panel.

Clash of Business Models? - Now that Amazon has launched its aggressive campaign to deploy over 3,000 Kuiper satellites, one area that is likely to attract growing attention is the divergence in distribution strategies and scaling models among the leading players.

My Take: And ecosystems. With Kuiper tightly integrated into AWS, what great opportunities and unique applications will that afford their service provider partners.

The data center space race has begun - As data center energy demand soars, startups are plotting their way into space-based computing with its promise of low-cost power and cooling.

Data centres are increasingly being launched into space but must meet stringent requirements - Data centres in orbit will be a key component of future space activities, but there are hurdles to overcome to make them widely available.

My Take: Redundancy, Radiation and Thermals. Listen to my Podcast with Philip Johnston, Co-Founder and CEO of Starcloud for more on this!

Vocus launches Australia's first private layer 2 network over Starlink - Vocus has launched what it claims is Australia's first Layer 2 integration with the Starlink low earth orbit (LEO) satellite network, offering enterprise and government customers the ability to extend secure private networks to remote locations — without routing data over the public internet.

My Take: Private cloud interconnect, and all that. Once Telesat and Rivada are up and running, how many SpaceX customers will relocate to purpose-built solutions? How much more do Layer 2 services cost?

Forrester’s Digest: Starlink active in Iran - On June 13th, Iran’s communications ministry announced that “temporary restrictions have been imposed on the country’s internet” in response to Israel’s wave of attacks on military and nuclear facilities. The ministry added that the curbs will be in place until normalcy returns, effectively cutting off millions from digital communication. Hence Musk’s response, coming via X, said: “The beams are on,” confirming Starlink’s activation in the country.

My Take: See, this is what it’s all about. On demand. When needed, where needed.

Atlas V glitch delays second Project Kuiper launch - A hardware glitch on United Launch Alliance's (ULA) workhorse Atlas V rocket delayed the launch of the second batch of Project Kuiper satellites.

My Take: At least it didn’t blow up. They’re 0/2 on first launches. 82 more to go!

Global Space Industry Braces for Impact of US Tariffs - Global back and forth over tariffs may result in a notable cost increase of space technology with globally interconnected supply chains.

My Take: What if everyone shipped their matertials into space and everything was manufactured in orbit? Then what?

Trump presses FCC and EchoStar to cut spectrum licenses deal – report - EchoStar shares got a big boost following a report that President Trump is encouraging FCC Chairman Brendan Carr and EchoStar to resolve a dispute centered on EchoStar's spectrum licenses.

My Take: I wonder how many shares of EchoStar are in DT’s investment portfolio?

What Do We Know About LEO BEAD Bids? - Starlink said it would bid between $3,750 to $5,000 per location in Washington State’s BEAD program. Kuiper submitted winning bids to serve 4,891 locations in Nevada for an average cost of $2,962 per location in the state’s BEAD program. 

My Take: More datapoints in the article

Understanding Satellite Data Analytics - The path from a satellite orbiting hundreds of kilometers above the Earth to an actionable insight on a computer screen is a complex, multi-stage process. Raw data captured by a satellite is not immediately usable; it must be acquired, corrected, and analyzed to unlock its value. This journey transforms a stream of electronic signals into a clear, accurate, and meaningful representation of the world.

My Take: Perhaps another reason for more data processing in space as opposed to sending raw data back to earth for processing.

China lays foundation for cislunar infrastructure with spacecraft in novel lunar orbits - China has sent several small spacecraft into specialized lunar and cislunar orbits to test communications, navigation and orbital dynamics for planned Earth-moon infrastructure.

My Take: Always suspect of what China is really up to.

July decision expected on combination of European space companies - Three European aerospace companies expect to decide by next month whether to combine their space divisions, something that could still take years to win regulatory approvals.

My Take: What’s the opportunity cost associated with “years to win regulatory approvals?”

Venturi Space Unveils its All-European Rover - Venturi Space France is developing a lunar rover—named Mona Luna—to support future ESA and CNES missions to the lunar South Pole.

My Take: Why didn’t they just call it Rover?

China’s Cangyu plans mixed-orbit commercial data relay satellite system - Private firm Cangyu Space Technology is planning a commercial data relay constellation using a novel mix of orbits, signaling continued expansion of China’s commercial ecosystem.

My Take: Oh, I see. I threw the picture into ChatGPT and asked for help. It’s “The world’s only commercial relay satellite system integrating GEO, IGSO, and MEO orbits”

Direct To Device

Connecting the Unconnected: An In-Depth Analysis of Direct-to-Device Satellite Services - The primary driver for D2D is not to compete with terrestrial mobile networks but to complement them. The business models are overwhelmingly built on partnerships between satellite operators and MNOs. Terrestrial networks are, and will remain, far superior in speed, capacity, and the ability to penetrate buildings.

My Take: Lots of good information in here for those looking to learn!

Enabling AI

Barbie maker Mattel and OpenAI partner to develop AI-powered toys - The collaboration will combine Mattel's most well-known brands — including Barbie, Hot Wheels, American Girl and more — with OpenAI's generative AI capabilities to develop new types of products and experiences, the companies said. 

My Take: Oh, this is a great idea. Nothing bad can happen here, like the toys taking over.

AI is stealing entry-level jobs from university graduates - University graduates have new competition in the job market: AI. Recruiters, business consultants and university representatives say tools like ChatGPT are increasingly occupying the first rung of the employment ladder, making it harder for graduates to get into the job market. As a result, many people graduating this summer are struggling to find jobs as AIs do the work typically given to interns and co-op students.

My Take: The world need carpenters, electricians and plumbers, too! I’m sure someone is tracking enrolment into affected categories of study.

Amazon's corporate workforce may shrink as AI takes over routine tasks - The rollout of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) and agents will reduce Amazon's total corporate workforce in the next few years, Andy Jassy, CEO of the online retailer said in a note to employees on Tuesday. AI is reshaping the global workforce by automating routine and repetitive tasks, and industry leaders expect this to prompt a reduction or transformation of certain roles across industries.

My Take: They seems to have figured out how to automate people throwing my deliveries at my front door.

Hurricanes and sandstorms can be forecast 5,000 times faster thanks to new Microsoft AI model - The model, called Aurora, is trained on more than 1 million hours of global atmospheric data, including weather station readings, satellite images and radar measurements. Scientists at Microsoft say it's likely the largest dataset ever used to train a weather AI model.

My Take: This is an example of “AI for good”. Get people out of harm’s way faster, more accurately and allow the insurance companies to raise rates in real time.. maybe.

Your Brain on ChatGPT: Accumulation of Cognitive Debt when Using an AI Assistant for Essay Writing Task - With today's wide adoption of LLM products like ChatGPT from OpenAI, humans and businesses engage and use LLMs on a daily basis. Like any other tool, it carries its own set of advantages and limitations. This study focuses on finding out the cognitive cost of using an LLM in the educational context of writing an essay.

My Take: “Brain connectivity systematically scaled down with the amount of external support: the Brain‑only group exhibited the strongest, widest‑ranging networks, Search Engine group showed intermediate engagement, and LLM assistance elicited the weakest overall coupling” — translation, LLMs are making some people more stupider 🙄

This and That!

Paramount CMO on strategy for critical first-month SVOD churn window - Paramount starts thinking about this factor even before users sign up for the SVOD, working closely with product and technology teams to implement strategies from the jump that will help retain users in that critical early window.

My Take: “marketing and data-driven insights are closely tied..” along with a lot of predictive analytics. I added this article because there are likely some lessons that ISP could learn around predictive and preventative churn management.

Trump extends the TikTok deadline — again - The president pushed TikTok's sale for the third time — this time to September — as the White House says Trump doesn't want the app "to go dark"

My Take: Find a way to tariff content. Maybe he enjoys doom scrolling TikTok at night, and following political advice from 21-year olds.

Digital Twins of Aircraft: Aviations Next Big Leap? - Why do we still rely on ‘black box’ data troves kept aboard planes? Technology enablers now largely seem in place to link aircraft exhaustively with their digital shadows on the ground

My Take: I was actually thinking about this the other day. Don’t planes stream a massive amount of real-time in-flight data already? I guess the local presence is the equivalent of the hybrid cloud for redundancy.

Almost half of California's faults — including San Andreas — are overdue for earthquakes - California's earthquakes are far more likely to be "overdue" compared with earthquakes in the rest of the world.

My Take: Find Dwayne Johnson! Wasn’t California supposed to be an island by now?

It’s Official: Streaming Is Now the King of TV - In May, more Americans watched television on streaming than on cable and network television combined, Nielsen said. It is the first time that has happened over a full month.

My Take: How much of it is legal vs not legal? Actually doesn’t surprise me, though. People have probably realized that they only watch 5 cable channels and can either stream them for free, or ditched cable for some much less expensive OTT IPTV service. Thinking about it myself.

Tinder now lets you go on double dates - The feature lives within a new “Double Date” icon in the top-right corner of the app, where you can invite up to three friends to create pairs with. You can both scroll through a feed of paired profiles, which appear side by side with photos and descriptions. A match is created when one person from both pairs swipes right. Tinder will then open up a group chat with all four users.

My Take: Not being a Tinder user, and actually never having been a Tinderer (is that what they call them?), I have no ides if this is necessary.

Infographic Of The Week

My Take: Hmm.. I always thought Matcha had a higher caffeine content. “You people” who drink double-espresso; how do you sleep and not bounce off the walls?

Podcast Recommendation

From Arctic sovereignty to wildfire response, Canada’s challenges are increasingly being solved by the low earth orbital satellites less than 1000km from the earth’s surface.  In this episode, co-hosts John Stackhouse and Sonia Sennik dive into the pivotal role that satellite communications have in Canada’s future. Prompted by Prime Minister Mark Carney’s call for enhanced Canadian defense, the conversation explores how innovation in low earth orbit will shape global competitiveness and security.

Mike Greenley, CEO of MDA Space, offers a compelling look at how Canada’s satellite and robotics capabilities are fueling both surveillance and strategic infrastructure in space, including the next generation of the Canadarm. Dan Goldberg, CEO of Telesat, discusses their $6B Lightspeed constellation and how low Earth orbit networks will revolutionize broadband access across Canada and beyond. Finally, planetary scientist Dr. Margarita Marinova outlines a bold vision of an emerging space economy – from fire detection to lunar research, and what it means for Canadian innovation.

Listen Here!

Movie/Streaming Recommendation

IMDb: 6.9/10

JMDb: 🍿/10 (2 hours of my life, gone)

How did I end up at this dumpster fire of a movie?

Well, I normally go to movies with my daughter. We like going to movies and enjoy similar genres and franchises. To that end, I had initially proposed that we see Ballerina, the newest from the world of John Wick, but she was otherwise occupied.

Sounds bad, but on to option 2 😉 .. Knowing that my wife isn’t a John Wick fan, but likes the Mission Impossible franchise, I suggested we see the new MI movie, but she was in mood for a rom-com and chose this sleeper of a movie.

She agreed that MI would have been the better choice (duh…)…

Materialists is a disappointing follow-up to Celine Song’s acclaimed Past Lives, failing to capture the emotional depth or charm of her debut. The film centers on Lucy, a New York matchmaker who treats dating as a transactional marketplace, but the story quickly devolves into a predictable love triangle with little genuine chemistry between the leads. Dakota Johnson’s performance as Lucy is notably flat, making it difficult to invest in her journey or care about her romantic choices.

The film’s attempt to critique modern dating and materialism feels heavy-handed and uninspired, with dialogue that often comes across as clunky and forced. While Pedro Pascal and Chris Evans bring some energy to their roles, their efforts are not enough to overcome the film’s sluggish pacing and underwritten characters. Ultimately, Materialists is a tedious, uninspired rom-com that squanders its talented cast and thoughtful premise

A Word From Our Partner

Until Next Time

Comments here are my own and do not represent the opinions, views or thoughts of any person, company or organization that I may be associated with.

Feedback, comments and ideas are welcomed. Message me on LinkedIn or contact me at j[email protected]

Want to support this newsletter? Feel free to buy us a coffee to show your support!

This site may contain links to affiliate websites, and we receive an affiliate commission for purchases made by you on the affiliate website using such links.