SAMENA Telecommunications Council

19/10/2026

16/10/2026

During Network X 2026, the World Broadband Association (WBBA) hosted the Broadband Development Congress (BDC) in Vienna. At the congress, Bob Chen, President of Huawei Optical Business Product Line, delivered a keynote speech titled " Reshaping Network Value for New Growth in the AI Era." He emphasized the necessity of shifting network construction concepts in the AI era based on three "R"s—Rebuilding network architecture, Reshaping business model, and Redefining network O&M—to reshape network value and achieve new growth.

Bob Chen mentioned that, looking back over the past three decades, every boom in services—from voice and the Internet to video—has relied on network support. Today, AI is developing at a rapid pace. Large AI models now feature nearly 10 trillion parameters, and token consumption has surged nearly 50-fold over the past year. In the AI era, the objects, frequency, and quality of network connections have all undergone dramatic shifts. The entire industry must rethink how to reshape network value.

Chen pointed out that the most crucial element in reshaping network value is shifting network construction philosophy: network planning and building must center around AI service demands and AIDC layouts, while AI technology should be adopted to elevate O&M capabilities. This can be summarized into three "R"s. Rebuild network architecture: transitioning from traditional administrative region-centered networks to AIDC-centered networks. Reshape business model: for enterprise, upgrading from selling bandwidth alone to selling "bandwidth + latency + reliability", along with integrated computing-network services; and for home broadband: evolving from providing pure broadband connectivity to whole-home networking, and ultimately smart home experiences. Redefine network O&M: evolving from traditional semi-automated operations toward full-lifecycle intelligence.

Rebuild Network Architecture

In the past, networks were structured around administrative regions, divided into national backbone, provincial backbone, and metro networks. With the rise of AI, the number of AIDCs has grown nearly 10-fold, and traffic volume is no longer determined by population, but by computing power.

Take Zhongwei, China as an example: in the past, its traffic accounted for only about 0.1% of China's total. Today, Zhongwei has become one of China's eight national computing hubs, with its intelligent computing traffic accounting for over 10% of the country's total bandwidth, making it a core node in the AIDC interconnect network. Similar cases are taking place worldwide.

Therefore, network architecture must shift from being administrative region-centered to AIDC-centered. Networks should be organized into hierarchical layers around Core DCs, Regional DCs, and Edge DCs. Direct one-hop mesh connections between DCs enable deterministic 1-5-20 ms latency circles and rapid time-to-market.
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https://www.samenacouncil.org/samena_daily_news?news=112859

16/10/2026

NVIDIA and Cisco have announced plans for Ultra-Dense Small Form Factor Pluggable (USFP), a new high-density 400Gb/s-per-lane optical module designed to equip the hardware ecosystem for the next generation of AI factories using pluggable transceivers.

As AI models grow and inference demand expands, AI factories must connect more computing systems while managing network complexity, power and costs. Moving more data per watt and per switch helps operators make better use of their infrastructure investments.

Scaling AI factories requires more bandwidth per connection and more connections per switch. When a switch reaches its capacity, further network expansion can require additional switch layers and optical links, increasing latency, power consumption and costs.

USFP is designed to enable AI factory builders to scale from 200 Gb/s per lane to 400Gb/s-per-lane Ethernet AI fabrics, while extending a deployment model proven at scale across multiple generations of data center networks. With USFP, customers can embrace next-generation optical technology and meet the performance demand of AI workloads without overhauling their data center infrastructure.

The first planned USFP-based transceivers will pack 16 full-duplex lanes in an octal small form factor (OSFP)-sized footprint supporting both switches and SuperNICs, with the ability to expand to 32 and more lanes in the future. By doubling both the lane count and bandwidth per lane, USFP enables AI fabrics to connect more 1.6Tb/s endpoints without adding network tiers. Customers will be able to achieve 12.8Tb/s of overall capacity with USFP.

Comparable with an OSFP-sized module, it delivers 4x the bandwidth and front-panel bandwidth density, with approximately 1.3x the power efficiency, versus 200Gb/s-per-lane pluggable modules. This means AI builders can increase their compute scale within the same network footprint, while decreasing networking’s share of the overall AI factory power budget.

“Building the world’s largest AI factories starts with rethinking the smallest of connections,” said Gilad Shainer, senior vice president NVIDIA. “With USFP, NVIDIA and Cisco are building an ecosystem to reinvent pluggable optics — connecting more computing with greater efficiency to power the next generation of AI factories.”

“AI builders need an interconnect architecture that can scale performance without locking them into a more complex operating model,” said Bill Gartner, senior vice president and general manager of optical systems and optics at Cisco. “Cisco and NVIDIA recognized that scaling pluggable optics to 400Gb/s per lane would require more than another incremental extension of today’s module designs. Through our collaboration, USFP is designed to deliver a new level of bandwidth density while preserving the serviceability, deployment flexibility and operational simplicity of pluggable optics. By taking a full-stack approach — from silicon and systems to optics and the network operating system — we can optimize every layer to deliver the performance and scale the next generation of AI networks will require.”
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https://www.samenacouncil.org/samena_daily_news?news=112860

16/10/2026

Eutelsat (ISIN: FR0010221234 - Euronext Paris / London Stock Exchange: ETL) today announced the renewal of its long-standing partnership with Antik Sat, the direct-to-home (DTH) television platform operated by Antik Telecom, and A1, one of Central and Eastern Europe’s leading communications provider.

The new multi-transponder agreement reinforces the companies' commitment to delivering high-quality television services to households across Slovakia and the Czech Republic. Under the renewed partnership, Eutelsat will continue to provide satellite capacity at its flagship 16° East orbital position, the leading satellite neighbourhood for Central and Eastern Europe. A1 will deliver headend hosting, uplink and associated broadcast services, while Antik Sat will leverage the platform to serve its growing subscriber base with a comprehensive line-up of television content.

Home to hundreds of television channels, and reaching more than 80 million DTH, cable and IPTV homes across the region, Eutelsat's 16° East video neighbourhood remains a premier destination for broadcasters and pay-TV operators targeting Central and Eastern European markets. The renewal underscores the continued importance of satellite distribution as a reliable and scalable platform for premium television delivery.

Jakub Brzeczkowski, RVP Sales Video Europe at Eutelsat, said: “We are pleased to build on our long-standing relationship with Antik Telecom and A1 through this new agreement. Our leading 16° East neighbourhood provides the resilience, coverage and performance needed to support established and growing video platforms. We are proud to remain a trusted partner in Antik Telecom’s long-term growth journey.”
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https://www.samenacouncil.org/samena_daily_news?news=112861

15/10/2026

At the Ultra-Broadband Forum (UBBF 2026), Richard Liu, Vice President of Huawei and President of ICT Marketing & Solution Sales, delivered a keynote speech titled "Beyond Connectivity, AI-Centric New Generation UBB Network Brings Intelligence Everywhere." Richard Liu noted that AI is transforming the world at a speed surpassing any previous technological revolution in history. Looking forward, the industry must take networks as the foundation, comprehensively upgrade to the AI-centric new generation UBB network, and accelerate the monetization of operators' business value.

Three Scenarios Accelerate Monetization for Operators

Huawei helps leading operators revitalize their core services with AI and accelerate service monetization. In the home domain, operators use AI to reshape their core business, including broadband experience, business, and services. In the industry domain, operators upgrade connection quality and provide integrated computing-network services based on enterprise private lines to monetize network value. In the AIDC domain, targeting the data center computing power construction goal of 100,000-card clusters, a 2-tier networking architecture is adopted to control network costs. With cross-border traffic expected to grow rapidly, submarine-terrestrial cable synergy significantly improves connection availability, meeting AIDCs' demands for high-speed, reliable interconnection.

Four Innovations Build AI-Centric New Generation UBB Network

The value release of AI computing power relies on the construction of communication networks. Huawei and leading operators have jointly defined AI-centric new generation UBB network. Based on the data center network, bearer network, and access network, they provide on-demand network connectivity for different users, while building a secure and resilient network foundation.

Data center network: For large-scale clusters, three core technologies are used to build lossless interconnection and computing-efficiency-first network capabilities: the 2-tier networking architecture, network packet load balancing(NPLB), and FlashBoot 2.0.

Bearer network: AIDC-centric planning and construction are used to build a network featuring all-optical interconnection, wide-area lossless transmission, and millisecond-level computing. The 800G and all-optical cross-connect (OXC) technologies are used to implement all-optical high-speed interconnection and build a 1-3-5 ms latency circle. WSON switching within 50 ms achieves 99.999% network availability. Wide-area lossless RDMA transmission technology achieves zero packet loss in long-haul transmission.
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https://www.samenacouncil.org/samena_daily_news?news=112838

15/10/2026

Nokia has announced a new 50G/25G/10G/GPON line card that gives operators the flexibility to evolve their fiber network at their own pace and be ready for the demands of the AI era.

As AI transforms how consumers, businesses and industries use networks, richer content, greater cloud interaction and growing upstream traffic are increasing requirements for capacity, low latency, security and reliability. The solution enables operators to adapt their existing fiber networks as these demands grow. Earlier line cards could limit operators to a narrower set of PON technologies, requiring them to commit capacity in advance or add hardware as market needs changed. Nokia’s new multi-PON line card supports multiple generations on every port, allowing operators to introduce higher speeds when and where demand develops.

Built on Nokia’s in-house Quillion chip and optical PON modules, the new solution supports GPON, 10G, 25G and 50G PON on every port, together with a variety of multi-PON optical modules. This now allows operators to deploy the technology, or combination of technologies, in a flexible way that’s best suited to each market, service or business case. Operators can add or change PON generations on the same port and fiber as demand evolves.

The future of broadband is becoming harder to predict. AI is reshaping traffic patterns and creating new expectations for bandwidth, latency, security and reliability. At the same time, operators must make investments in next generation PON that will serve them for years to come. With our new line card, operators do not have to bet everything on a single path. They can deploy the PON technology their market needs now; add additional technologies on the same port and same fiber as the need arises; and easily mix and match PON generations to capture multiple revenue streams

Maryam Chaudry, SVP & GM, Fixed Networks, Nokia

50G PON Flexible Line Card

As operators prepare their networks for AI-driven applications and higher-speed broadband services, flexibility is becoming just as important as performance. Nokia's ability to support multiple PON generations on every port gives operators a practical, lower-risk path to evolve their fiber networks as demand develops.
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https://www.samenacouncil.org/samena_daily_news?news=112837

15/10/2026

stc group has announced the provision of free, unlimited outgoing and incoming calls for its customers roaming outside the Kingdom, to and from Saudi Arabia, for a period of one week starting from, Monday 12 October 2026.

This initiative stems from the group’s commitment to enabling its customers to stay connected with their loved ones, and families inside the Kingdom, reflecting its dedication to national responsibility, its care for its customers and its commitment to providing communication services that meet their needs, while they are outside of Saudi Arabia.

This initiative reaffirms stc’s role in leveraging its digital and communications capabilities to serve its roaming customers, strengthen connectivity and facilitate communication between customers and their loved ones across the world.
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https://www.samenacouncil.org/samena_daily_news?news=112834

14/10/2026

Nokia announced that it has signed a definitive agreement regarding the proposed acquisition by AURELIUS of Nokia Enterprise Campus Edge (ECE) business. The planned transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2027, subject to customary closing conditions.

As a standalone business under AURELIUS's ownership, ECE is expected to benefit from greater independence and a dedicated strategic focus, helping it to drive innovation, respond quickly to customer needs, and accelerate the digitalization and transformation of industrial operations.

ECE is a recognized industry leader in private wireless, serving nearly 900 customers across industries including manufacturing, mining, logistics, airports, ports and power generation worldwide. Its portfolio also includes industrial devices, on-premises operational technology (OT) edge and micro-edge solutions, as well as software applications that enable industrial AI-powered use cases. ECE’s digitalization platform helps organizations improve operational performance, increase automation, and enhance sustainability and worker safety by connecting assets and processing OT data on premises for greater data security and sovereignty.

ECE is a strong business with differentiated technology, a talented team, a global footprint and an established customer base that includes many Fortune 500 enterprises across various industries. We see significant opportunities for ECE to build on its leading position in private 5G and industrial edge as a standalone business, expand its portfolio into emerging areas such as AI-powered industrial automation, and help customers accelerate the digitalization and automation of their operations.

Fabian Steger, Managing Director AURELIUS Fund IV and V

This planned transaction supports Nokia’s strategy to sharpen its portfolio and direct capital and resources to the areas where it can create the greatest long-term value. It also provides ECE with a strong foundation for its next growth phase as a standalone business. Our priority throughout the transition will be continued growth of the business and continuity for existing customers and employees.
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https://www.samenacouncil.org/samena_daily_news?news=112821

14/10/2026

Ahe Open Compute Project (OCP) Global Summit 2026, Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO) introduced new silicon, systems and optical innovations that advance open AI infrastructure from rack-scale compute to distributed AI capacity. Together, the announcements demonstrate how Cisco is engineering the network as a coherent, programmable architecture while preserving the openness and choice customers expect in the super intelligence era. The new capabilities deepen Cisco’s continued commitment to deliver an open stack from silicon to Kubernetes, required to connect the AI foundations for hyperscalers, neoclouds and enterprises. Strong market adoption validates Cisco’s leadership and underscores deep customer trust as demand for AI compute capacity rapidly accelerates.

“AI is redefining what it means to scale infrastructure. It’s no longer just about individual data centers or clusters, but how we connect compute at massive scale without compromising performance or resilience. Cisco’s strength across silicon, networking, optics,systems and security puts us in a unique position to deliver the open infrastructure customers need as AI continues to evolve,” said Kevin Wollenweber, SVP and General Manager of Data Center and Internet Infrastructure, Cisco.

"Scale-Across" Connects the World’s AI Capacity

Scale-across extends coordinated AI workloads across facilities, building on traditional data center interconnect (DCI) technologies while introducing significantly different workload requirements. When accelerators across sites participate in the same coordinated job, congestion, latency and recovery can directly affect compute utilization and job progress. Cisco draws on its silicon, routing and optical networking leadership to address those requirements as one packet-to-optical architecture.

Cisco’s scale-across architecture brings together Silicon One P200, deep-buffered systems and coherent optics to connect AI fabrics across locations to act as a unified cluster. It provides customers a single, unified compute fabric enabled by the performance, deep programmability and embedded security of the Silicon One architecture. Cisco is the first in the industry to announce its 51.2T systems, powered by the Silicon One P200, are deployed in a production environment by leading hyperscalers.

"Microsoft and Cisco share a longstanding partnership rooted in engineering collaboration and innovation. We are pleased to announce that today, Microsoft has moved into production on systems powered by the Cisco Silicon One P200. As our infrastructure demands grow, the P200’s robust architecture provides the speed and enhanced buffering capabilities necessary to address the increasing scale of our cloud and high-performance services. This milestone reflects the next stage in our long-term collaboration, ensuring we continue to deliver the performance and reliability required for the modern digital era,” said Anand Ramakrishna, Corporate Vice President, Engineering, Microsoft.
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https://www.samenacouncil.org/samena_daily_news?news=112820

14/10/2026

stc Bahrain, a digital enabler, has entered into a strategic partnership with ila Bank, Bahrain’s leading digital mobile-only bank, to offer ila Bank cardholders exclusive discounts on rova, stc’s groundbreaking global travel app and eSIM solution.

The collaboration bridges digital telecommunications and modern financial lifestyle services, providing ila Bank customers with seamless, instant global data connectivity while traveling. Through this partnership, ila Bank cardholders can unlock exclusive savings of up to 25% on rova’s destination-specific data packages across more than 35 countries worldwide.

Built as a digital platform for modern explorers, rova extends stc’s international footprint by blending next-generation telecom technologies with a traveler-first digital experience. Available to both stc subscribers and non-subscribers, rova turns mobile connectivity into a smart, personalized travel companion.

To unlock these exclusive savings, ila Bank customers simply apply the promo code corresponding to their card tier at checkout on the rova app. Cardholders with an ila Bank Credit card (CREDIT25) or ila Bank Premium card (PREMIUM25) can claim a 25% discount on all destination data packs. Meanwhile, holders of an ila Bank Prepaid card (PREPAID15), ila Bank Classic card (CLASSIC15), or ila Bank alburaq Debit card (ALBURAQ15) enjoy an exclusive 15% discount on their rova eSIM purchases when completing their order with their respective ila Bank card.

Mr. Khalid Alia, Chief Digital & CEX Officer at stc Bahrain, commented: "At stc Bahrain, we are committed to pushing the boundaries of digital innovation and delivering experiences that fit seamlessly into our customers' lives. 'rova' was designed to eliminate traditional travel challenges, ranging from expensive roaming charges to queuing for local SIM cards. Partnering with ila Bank allows us to introduce this next-generation travel companion to a tech-savvy, highly engaged audience, providing them with unmatched convenience and value wherever their journeys take them."
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https://www.samenacouncil.org/samena_daily_news?news=112819