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In Today’s Issue

What’s Happening On Earth?

🇨🇦 Advisory council urges Ottawa to spend $2B to prepare for quantum disruption - In a letter to then-innovation minister François-Philippe Champagne on Nov. 1, 2024, the Quantum Advisory Council said that new programs are needed to ensure Canada builds up its quantum sector, secures government systems from devastating cyberattacks and to ensure that Canadian quantum firms don’t move to the United States.

My Take: Yea. Spend money to keep stuff in Canada!

🇨🇦 Canadian telecom hacked by suspected Chinese group - The Canadian release says the ongoing cyber attacks are most likely from a hacking group sponsored by the People’s Republic of China called Salt Typhoon. These attacks are on Cisco networking equipment, and similar exploits happened in the U.S. in 2023. The equipment was patched then, but it seems like the hackers have found another back door.

My Take: When you reverse engineer everything.. never mind.. What did Canada do to China to deserve this? 🙂 

🇨🇦 Dozens of Manitobans couldn't reach 911 operators during March Telus outage: CRTC report - A Telus technician was paged to respond to the facility within minutes of the outage, but did not follow company protocols to alert Bell and Telus about the 911 circuit outage. The technician also failed to escalate the issue within the company, Telus said.

🇨🇦 Bell outage fixed in northwestern N.B. - A widespread telecommunications outage that affected Bell landline service across parts of northwestern New Brunswick is over.

My Take: So, some Telus technician screwed around while someone who suffered a heart attack died because they couldn’t get an ambulance. “Telus said it has disciplined the employee, whose actions prolonged the outage.”

Another example of how Direct-to-Cell will be able to fill these gaps and save lives.

🇨🇦 Rogers deploys 5G+ network at Rogers Stadium, Toronto - The company said it has installed a 5G+ in-building network system and antenna infrastructure at the venue, which hosts 50,000 people.

My Take: Prior to me contacting the writer, they had an image of Rogers Centre with the article, not Rogers Stadium. I think there’s just some generic image there now. Anyway, different places. Rogers Center (spelling it the other way this time) is the big dome thing - that needs to be torn down and rebuilt - in downtown Toronto. Rogers Stadium, which I had forgotten about until I read the article, is on the grounds of the now defunct Downsview Airport, which was also host to the 500,000 people who attended SARSstock in 2003. And, of course, then there’s Rogers Place, in Edmonton. Someone needs to get a little more creative with their venue naming ;)

🇨🇦 Rogers mobile network outage hits Canada [Resolved] - Rogers mobile subscribers across Canada have been reporting an issue where they’ve lost signal. Those using iPhones report seeing that the phone is in SOS mode, which means it can only do satellite emergency calls and texts. This outage extends to Rogers flanker brands Fido and Chatr as well.

My Take: Yea, Rogers had another outage. What’s for dinner? Once all the direct-to-device stuff is real people will care even less. It’s almost expected behaviour. Much like Toronto’s Mayor, Olivia Chow, blaming others for everything that happens in the city and not taking responsibility for any of it.

🇨🇦 Federal Liberals reintroduce cybersecurity bill meant to protect critical infrastructure - Ottawa has reintroduced legislation aimed at protecting Canada’s critical infrastructure that cybersecurity experts have called long overdue.

My Take: so basically, Bill C-8 is the new Bill C-26 which never really saw the light of day. With news of late (see above) maybe C-8 won’t suffer the same fate at C-26.

🇨🇦 Blackstone consortium completes $5.1bn investment in Rogers Communications’ internet and wireless unit - The deal, initially announced in April, sees Blackstone and institutional partners take a 49.9% equity stake – representing 20% of voting rights – in the unit holding Rogers’ internet and wireless assets. Rogers retains a 51.1% ownership stake and 80% voting control. The Canadian telecoms giant has the option to repurchase Blackstone’s interest after eight years.

My Take: If there’s anything left after 8 years 😉 Isn’t this all foreign ownership?

🇨🇦 CRTC upholds decision allowing large telecoms to resell internet services on each other’s networks - Canada’s telecom regulator has upheld its decision allowing large telecoms to resell internet services through rivals’ fibre networks, siding with arguments made by Telus Corp. in a long-running policy debate over competition in the sector. The verdict prompted strong reactions from other companies and industry groups opposed to the decision, with some calling for Ottawa to intervene.

Ottawa must stop the CRTC’s misguided, dogmatic internet decision

My Take: Bad for competition, plain and simple. It was put in place as a way to allow smaller ISPs to compete with the incumbents, not for Tier 1 to land-grab and turn the economics upside down for the access providers. And Telus is far from a “new entrant”. I don’t think the fight is over, and frankly, with all of their debt loads (Telus on the way, too, I suspect) could any of the even afford to build new infrastructure, anyway?

🇨🇦 Northern Exposure: The Best Canadian ISPs for 2025 - From Vancouver to St. John's, which Canadian ISPs truly deliver? We scrutinize performance, pricing, availability, and customer satisfaction to highlight the best broadband in your local market.

My Take: Honestly, who cares. Go ask 20 random people what they think about Bell being the best ISP overall, see what happens. Not even going to get into the Province-based results as there are so many regional players who aren’t even on the list. They’re not doing anyone any favours by ranking based on speed. The overall satisfaction index is more telling as it likely encompasses things like customer care, regionality and regional impact. No idea why I keep reading these reports.

Allo seeks 'voluntary resignations' amid need for more funding - Allo Communications has initiated a wave of cost-cutting measures, including voluntary resignations, as the operator looks to secure more capital to fund its fiber network buildout initiatives. BEAD delays are partly to blame.

My Take: Ruh-roh.

Nvidia Passes Cisco And Rivals Arista In Datacenter Ethernet Sales - Nvidia, of course, has quickly rose to challenge both Cisco Systems and Arista Networks in the datacenter mainly as its InfiniBand supercomputing interconnect is on the wane for back-end AI networks and its Spectrum-X Ethernet, which has modern congestion control and adaptive routing that is done in conjunction with BlueField DPUs, is being increasingly adopted by its AI system customers.

My Take: Looks like Huawei has lost some share, and a little from Cisco. I thought Arista was the DC king.

More bandwidth, fewer problems: Wi-Fi 7 performance is looking up - Wi-Fi 7 goes further with the addition of multi-link operation (MLO), which "means if you have a Wi-Fi 7 access point with a Wi-Fi 7 client device, it can simultaneously transmit across multiple frequency bands at the same time" and tap into higher data rates and throughput, says Starling. The latest wireless standard also has more data capacity due to its 320MHz-wide channels.

My Take: Now if we only had more WiFi7 devices.

Quantum networking startup raises $10m - Quantum networking technology developer Qunnect, which is on a “mission to revolutionise communications and networking”, has raised $10m in a Series A funding round extension led by Airbus Ventures with additional participation from Cisco Investments and venture capital firm Quantonation.

My Take: Spend the money on Space Data Centres instead ;)

Nokia tries to make quantum-safe networks go the distance - Much as Schrodinger's famous cat is both dead and alive at the same time, the cybersecurity threat posed by quantum computing is both present and still years away. No one has the ability to break common encryption algorithms, but what malicious actors do have is the ability to gather encrypted sensitive data and hold on to it with the goal of decrypting it in future. 

My Take: Someone read this and tell me what it says ;)

Verizon's Project 624 is all about better customer experience - Go big or go home. That’s the strategy Verizon appears to be taking with the overhaul of its customer service strategy.

My Take: Wouldn’t 724 be a better name for it? Still doesn’t explain why its called 624..

Pinpoint is pleased to share its latest Fiber Market Update

My Take: Great report. Lots of interesting data. Read it.

The Divide: How inaccurate broadband mapping is still impeding access - This week: BroadbandNow's Tyler Cooper discusses research showing the FCC is still undercounting the number of people in the US without broadband access, and how incorrect mapping is hindering efforts to close the digital divide.

My Take: Seems to be one of those problems that will never really get fixed, and not limited to the US, either. An address-based standardized test protocol would help, I’m sure, but who’s going to pay for that? Perhaps it’s an issue of validating submitted data, but that’s expensive as well. Maybe people just don’t want to share.

Onsite power to play key role in data center growth, says study - Bloom Energy’s report highlighted that onsite power generation was expected to become a defining feature of the next wave of AI-driven infrastructure

My Take: LNG. Western Canada. Watch. Oh, and SMRs, too. One day.

Data center in a truck busted siphoning power in Russia - Russian authorities found a mobile data center illegally siphoning electricity meant for a nearby village to mine cryptocurrency.

My Take: Data Centres are the new Grow Ops. “I am the danger”, and all that.

China Tower upgrades infra for AI, IoT and satellite tech - China Tower says 5.6 million base stations and 2.1 million tower sites in China are being revamped for AI.

My Take: That’s a lot of capacity and opportunity for infrastructure to power whatever they have up their sleeve next.

Telco M&A shows ‘remarkable’ resilience this year - Despite global economic uncertainty and rising interest rates, telecom M&A is still alive and kicking with AT&T/Lumen, Charter/Cox and other mergers cropping up.

My Take: Those are examples of some pretty large M&A deals. I’m sure BEAD will force some interesting investment market opportunities

Consumer IoT products are priced 44% higher on average than similar non-connected products - Parks Associates recently surveyed more than 100 executives across the connected home and consumer IoT landscape to better understand their view of the market, changes in their business strategies, key metrics for success, and top challenges facing the market. The research, found in The Business of Consumer IoT: Product Strategy in a Maturing Market, reveals consumer IoT products are priced 21-70% higher than similar non-connected products, with an average price differential of 44%.

My Take: I see studies with all sorts of numbers, but yet to see real consistent case studies and outcomes..

Google preps public cloud charge at telecom as Microsoft wobbles - Efforts by AWS and Microsoft to offer the public cloud for telco workloads have borne little fruit. Now Google has entered the fray.

My Take: ..and they seem to be making great progress based on recent announcement with carriers and vendor integration initiatives. Right tool for the right job, and all that.

Archangel Joining the Dots IoT Project - The Archangel Joining the Dots project is an initiative leveraging the Internet of Things to transform the way social housing and care services are delivered. As part of the Glasgow 5G Innovation Region’s Smart and Connected Social Places (SCSP) Innovation Fund, this initiative aligns with national priorities to foster digital transformation, economic growth, and commercial investment in advanced wireless connectivity solutions.

My Take: Look! An IoT study with real results!

MEF hopes Mplify exemplifies global NaaS aspirations - MEF, formerly the Metro Ethernet Forum, is rebranding as Mplify. The industry group said the change is needed to communicate its mission to unlock cloud-like flexibility, automation and scalability in service provider networks.

My Take: I get why they need to do this, but the brand has so much value!

How customers inspired the eero Outdoor 7 with their DIY ideas - Engineers rigorously tested the eero Outdoor 7 in extreme conditions to create a Wi-Fi solution that fit even the most demanding customer needs.

My Take: Good story. Learned a few things along the way about what goes into designing these outdoor units.

What’s Happening In Space?

What’s in Space This Week?

Amazon's Kuiper Launches 27 Satellites, Eyes 2025 LEO Broadband Rollout - Amazon expects to begin customer service in late 2025, driving its schedule. To meet this timeline, it has reserved dozens of launch slots on Atlas V, ULA's new Vulcan, Blue Origin's New Glenn, Arianespace's Ariane 6 and even SpaceX's Falcon 9 rockets. These commitments ensure the required satellites will launch quickly to meet Amazon's deployment milestones.

My Take: 81 more launches to go, I think? Suggestions that services will be turned up in some areas by the end of the year, as well.

Project Kuiper and U.S. National Science Foundation sign satellite coordination agreement - The coordination agreement establishes clear protocols and processes to ensure Project Kuiper's satellite constellation can deliver on its mission to bring fast, reliable internet to customers and communities around the world, while also minimizing interference with astronomical observations. This balanced approach recognizes that both connectivity and scientific discovery represent crucial priorities for technological advancement and human knowledge.

My Take: That’s very thoughtful of them.

On the cusp of the Kuiper campaign - With the unfolding phenomenon of SpaceX’s Starlink rollout having caused a pronounced stir in the satellite market, the industry has been eager for clues as to how the emergence of another big tech Low Earth Orbit (LEO) giant in Amazon’s Kuiper Project could shake things up further as it rolls out this year.

My Take:  “Morgan Stanley estimates capital expenditure for the company on this work will amount to $96.4 billion in 2025 alone. Barclays estimates Kuiper’s revenue would represent $61bn by 2030, made up of $26bn in consumer segments and $25bn in business and enterprise such as data centers, as well as aviation and maritime connectivity. Reaching that outcome will depend on hitting rollout deadlines without any logistical or manufacturing surprises, as well as obtaining vital regulatory approvals.”

Starlink and Kuiper fight over prime ground station real estate in Ireland - The site, at the National Space Centre in Elfordstown, Midleton, is just one of many battlegrounds where Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite operators build out their terrestrial infrastructure.

My Take: You know what this reminded me of? Lucky Charms. That horrible breakfast cereal with those dried marshmallow things in it. I’ve been to Ireland. I liked Ireland. I would go back to Ireland. But I won’t eat Lucky Charms. They’re not magically delicious.

The new Starlink Performace panel - will be capable of Gigabit class throughput later this year/2026 with the activation of a dual channel feature, presumable simultaneous Ka and Ku bands.

My Take: So “performance” is just a relative suggestion?

Starlink satellites at risk if ‘city killer’ asteroid hits Moon - Debris from space rock 2024YR4 could could knock out communications in December 2032 if collision happens

My Take: Let me add that to my calendar. And they’re not collisions. They’re conjunctions.

Starlink Imposes $750 Surcharge on New Customers in Major Northwestern U.S. Cities - New customers in cities such as Portland, Seattle, and Spokane were hit with a $750 surcharge, as were those seeking to sign up for Starlink in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.

My Take: I don’t see how a surcharge fixes the problem, other than by being a barrier to entry, and thereby eliminating a further capacity issue.

City dwellers flock to Starlink, pushing network to its limits - Demand for Starlink in African cities risks network congestion and potential surcharge fees to ensure access.

My Take: Is Africa the use case of things to come?

Profit almost doubles at Elon Musk’s Starlink as sales surge - Turnover at Starlink, Elon Musk’s satellite internet constellation, spiked in the UK as its profit almost doubled in 2024, it has been revealed.

My Take: Perhaps it helps to make up for the Tesla losses.

Interesting facts about Starlink - Since Starlink satellites orbit relatively close to Earth, their addressability constraints (meaning how many satellites are visible and reachable from a specific location) play a crucial role in determining actual network performance. Therefore, understanding the localized characteristics of constellations is essential to accurately anticipate user experience and bandwidth availability.

My Take: Another great piece from Carlos Placido. Check out my chat with him in Episode #2 of the Jason’s Industry Insights podcast.

France takes aim at Starlink with big bet on Eutelsat - France has announced plans to significantly increase its stake in satellite operator Eutelsat, contributing €717 million (approximately US$826 million) to a capital expansion aimed at boosting Europe’s capabilities in low-Earth orbit communications

My Take: ..all in a bid to go against Mr. Musk’s LEO empire.

Huawei's next tri-fold, satellite-capable phone is almost here - Huawei's latest version of its tri-fold phone is expected to emerge in September with the addition of satellite connectivity, plus notable upgrades to its chipset, cameras and screen durability.

My Take: ok.

Satellites’ key role in U.S. airstrikes Iranian nuclear sites - The U.S. Space Force has been quiet about what role it played in Operation Midnight Hammer, the high-stakes air campaign that targeted Iran’s nuclear facilities over the weekend. But the coordinated U.S. strikes on Iranian sites at Natanz, Fordow and Isfahan underscored the role of satellites in modern combat.

My Take: Go, space, go. Good article. Go learn things.

On this day in space! June 25, 1997: Russian cargo craft collides with Mir Space Station - The uncrewed spacecraft collided with the space station while testing the docking system.

My Take: Oh, nyet.

NATO Releases its First Commercial Space Strategy - NATO released its Commercial Space Strategy on Tuesday, aimed at integrating commercial solutions more flexibly, and creating more business opportunities while simplifying how space companies engage with NATO. 

My Take: It’s good that they’re leveraging commercial systems and not rebuilding entire space-based infrastructure.

European Commission Introduces Proposal for EU Space Act - The European Commission released its proposal for the EU Space Act to create a single market for space activities in the EU and put new requirements on space operators regarding space sustainability and cybersecurity. 

My Take: Does Canada have one? I think not? Anyone?

Direct To Device

3GPP Release 17+ NTN: Direct-to-Device Satellite—How Far Can the Standard Take Us? - what does Release 17+ really mean for direct-to-device connectivity? How much of the technical and physical challenge does the standard solve—and how much does it leave in your environment’s hands?

My Take: Good insights in here, although I think there’s also an agenda at work.

T-Mobile's Starlink satellite service launches on July 23 - T-Mobile's satellite service will be available even to AT&T and Verizon customers.

T-Mo: 1.8 million people joined the T-Satellite NTN beta - T-Mobile US appears to have an answer, to the tune of more than 1.8 million “yeses”. That’s how many customers joined its T-Satellite NTN beta service, which was launched in February of this year. For perspective: T-Mobile US had total customer connections of 130.9 million at the end of the first quarter of this year, so that 1.8 million represents less than 1.4% of its base of connections.

My Take: “Customers want to be able to use devices that they already have; to be connected automatically to a satellite when they leave terrestrial coverage, rather than fussing with finding line-of-sight with a satellite; and to have ubiquitous coverage, including in the hundreds of thousands of square miles of U.S. territory where no terrestrial cellular network coverage is available.”

Enabling AI

According to Gartner, the future isn't actually agentic - Research giant predicts over 40 percent of agentic AI projects will be canned within two years

My Take: ..and I’ll bet they can sell you consulting hours to make sure the ones you’re working on last longer 😀 

AI in telecom – ML pattern-matching in customer support - For telcos, the surest AI wins come in their operational heartlands – streamlining customer care, enhancing enterprise services, and turning network data into actionable insights

My Take: ..anyway, same old story about using “AI” for OPEX saving, and getting rid of support people. My experience to day? No bot can ever completely help me.

🇨🇦 Liberals won’t reintroduce old AI law but will address copyright issues - New rules will address how copyright applies to artificial intelligence, AI Minister Evan Solomon has told The Logic. The Liberals will also not reintroduce the previous government’s proposed AI law wholesale, he said, with Ottawa currently working on an updated “regulatory framework” for the technology.

My Take: Waiting to see what Evan Solomon does with this new portfolio, and how much money ends up behind it to fund Canadian initiatives. Elbows up, and all that.

Apple sued by shareholders for allegedly overstating AI progress - Apple was sued on Friday by shareholders in a proposed securities fraud class action that accused it of downplaying how long it needed to integrate advanced artificial intelligence into its Siri voice assistant, hurting iPhone sales and its stock price.

My Take: sigh.. Maybe they should have asked Siri what she thought before they invested.

Exclusive: DeepSeek aids China's military and evaded export controls, US official says - AI firm DeepSeek is aiding China's military and intelligence operations, a senior U.S. official told Reuters, adding that the Chinese tech startup sought to use Southeast Asian shell companies to access high-end semiconductors that cannot be shipped to China under U.S. rules.

My Take: None of this should surprise anyone.

Are we ready to hand AI agents the keys? - Tech CEOs and scholars alike are taking AI agents seriously. In this edition of What’s Next in Tech, examine whether we’re ready to allow this new type of agent into our everyday lives.

My Take: Simple. NO!

How can telcos become more relevant enablers of AI? - The rise of AI presents a major opportunity for service providers. However, they need to proactively understand and address customer long-term needs. This means getting involved early in their customers’ thinking and planning around AI – and this article looks at how providers can do that effectively.

My Take: Interesting article. Some good examples if large telcos who have productized some AI offerings, albeit somewhat “pedestrian” at this point.

This and That!

Computer Engineering Grads Face Double The Unemployment Rate Of Art History Majors - Computer engineering grads face double the unemployment rate of art history majors, according to the most recent data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

My Take: Well, let’s look at this a little. 7.5% for computer people. 3% for Art History people. Anyone can build a computer these days 😉 .. but the variety of skills associated with Art History degrees opens many interesting opportunities, so they say.

DARPA smashes wireless power record, beaming energy more than 5 miles away — and uses it to make popcorn - The feat has significant applications for military purposes and space-based solar power.

My Take: Good thing that science is being used to make popcorn. Could you imagine getting vaporized because you accidentally walked in front of a wireless power stream? It would surely be a shocking experience. Either way, pretty cool!

Scientists Are Sending Cannabis Seeds to Space - The versatile cannabis plant could, some scientists think, one day be useful for lunar and Martian colonists. For now, researchers will subject its seeds to radiation in orbit and see what happens.

My Take: Just what we need. Stoned astronauts. Hello, Major Tom.

Elon Musk’s Lawyers Claim He ‘Does Not Use a Computer’ - The claim appeared in a court filing related to Elon Musk’s ongoing lawsuit against Sam Altman and OpenAI. The Tesla and xAI owner has posted about his laptop numerous times in the past year.

My Take: That’s like saying Donald Trump doesn’t know what “X” is. Teslar.

How bad are Canadian airlines? Very bad, according to you - More than 73 per cent of respondents to The Logic’s latest subscriber survey said that the experience of flying with Canadian airlines is worse now than it was before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Canada should open up airline industry to foreign owners, Competition Bureau says - The Competition Bureau has recommended that foreign ownership restrictions be removed to help make Canada’s air travel industry more competitive.

My Take: I haven’t been flying much lately, but from all the comments I see online, this all doesn’t look to be too far off.

Infographic Of The Week

My Take: Due to US sanctions in 2018, In 2023, a staggering 89% of Iran’s oil exports went to China, a sharp rise from just 25% in 2017. China uses all the oil to make plastic things that no one needs, but that American’s buy. So, in the end, the oil ends up in the US.

Podcast Recommendation

NASA's James Webb Telescope has captivated the public with incredible discoveries that include dying stars, distant galaxies, and signs of life on other planets. The telescope launched in December of 2021 after 25 years in development. In this episode, we explore the history of the James Webb project, its journey to space, its breakthrough findings, and potential follow-up programs that could build on its success. 

Via Satellite Executive Editor Jeffrey Hill interviews Scott Willoughby, who served Northrop Grumman’s vice president and program manager for the James Webb Space Telescope, and Dr. Bhanu Sood, deputy chief technologist, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Sood has served as NASA's risk assessment process owner for microelectronics on a number of flagship programs including JWST. 

Listen Here!

Movie/Streaming Recommendation

IMDb: 7.2/10

JMDb: 🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿/10 (only because it’s way better than last week)

Danny Boyle’s 28 Years Later is a bold, haunting return to the world of the Rage Virus, blending visceral horror with a deeply human coming-of-age story.

Set on the isolated Holy Island, the film follows young Spike (Alfie Williams) as he navigates family, grief, and survival in a quarantined Britain still scarred by past outbreaks. Boyle’s direction is both urgent and lyrical, with stunning cinematography capturing the eerie beauty of a world in decay.

The performances, especially from Williams, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, and Jodie Comer, anchor the chaos in raw emotion, while Alex Garland’s script deftly explores themes of isolation, resilience, and the cost of safety.

Critics praise the film’s willingness to take risks and its fresh, unsettling energy, even as it divides audiences with its unconventional choices and somber tone.

28 Years Later is a gripping, artful sequel that lingers long after the credits roll.

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