Following the update on the U.S. telecom market, I wanted to take a snapshot of how the Canadian telecom restructuring is unfolding in 2026. At the macro level, the themes are familiar. The 5G deployment cycle is winding down and operators are focused on debt reduction through lower capex and selective divestments. Yet the Canadian… Read More »
Following Xona Partners’ annual market update, I wanted to share a clearer view of the U.S. telecom market as I see it today. The industry has entered a structural reset. Operators are consolidating around fiber as the strategic asset, convergence as the competitive lever and disciplined capital allocation as the operating reality. Strategic acquisitions and… Read More »
Orbital Data Centers (ODCs) surged into the spotlight after SpaceX filed for a constellation of 1 million satellites and StarCloud spoke of a 5 GW orbital data center powered by a 4×4 km solar array. Processing data in space is not new. Satellites already run GPU class compute to filter and compress data before downlink.… Read More »
The Amazon Globalstar acquisition, valued at $11.57 billion, centers on the strategic value of MSS spectrum. However, there are several additional elements worth noting. I will drill into these aspects to provide a more rounded view of the deal and its market impact. Strategic Assets and Operational Synergy MSS spectrum is one of the most… Read More »
The 2026 trade show season, which spanned PTC in Honolulu, MWC in Barcelona, and Satellite 2026 in Washington, made it abundantly clear that the telecom industry revolves around AI as both a user and an infrastructure enabler. Current investment patterns reveal a fundamental re-orientation. Terrestrial infrastructure increasingly gears itself toward servicing AI workloads, while traditional… Read More »
It’s been a year and a half since I published my July 2024 paper (Mobile Infrastructure Capex: Permanent Weakening or Short-Term Decline) explaining why the telecom capex downturn would run deeper and longer than previous cycles. This piece aims to capture a current market snapshot by examining the most notable bankruptcies and market exits since… Read More »
The LEO satellite sector keeps moving at a fast pace. If you want the latest market outlook, you can download our Insight Note below. I wanted to add a bit more context here, especially since a new development for SpaceX emerged after we released the Note. SpaceX just received FCC authorization to scale its Gen2… Read More »
In the final days of 2025, talk of a 6G race suddenly exploded after the White House issued a presidential memoranda on December 19 titled “Winning the 6G Race.” It immediately brought back memories of the 5G race, which faded into obscurity once 5G rolled out and failed to deliver on its promise. Here are… Read More »
While investments in access telecom networks continue to stagnate (see here), the subsea fiber market is bucking the trend. Growth in connectivity infrastructure for cloud services has kept activity strong, and the buildout of AI infrastructure and data center interconnects is adding new momentum. In fact, this is the most significant wave of subsea investment… Read More »
In these final days of 2025, markets are hitting record highs on the strength of AI-driven valuations. Yet the conversation around an emerging AI correction risk has intensified as investors weigh stretched multiples and rising capital costs. The year began with a jolt when DeepSeek briefly rattled the market in January, raising fears of a… Read More »
With 2025 drawing to a close, we (Xona Partners) recap key highlights in digital infrastructure across data centers and telecom assets, including wireless, fiber, satellite, and submarine systems, while looking ahead to developments in 2026 (download below). We titled the preface Digital Infrastructure: Momentum in 2025, Validation in 2026 to reflect our view that 2026… Read More »
Earlier last week, on October 28, Nvidia held its GPU Technology Conference (GTC) in Washington, DC, where it made a number of announcements. One of these was a $1 Billion investment in Nokia, which sparked excitement across the telecom sector. This post takes a deeper look at that investment. For context, I would note the… Read More »
Using optical links for communications between space and Earth sits at the frontier of technology and presents significant challenges. While optical inter-satellite links (ISLs) have surpassed RF ISLs in deployments and applicability, RF remains the primary mode for feeder links connecting satellites to ground stations. Still, interest in optical feeder link (OFL) technologies persists and… Read More »
Strategic interest in Ground Stations as a Service (GSaaS) is rising, driven by two counteracting trends in the satellite industry. The rapid proliferation of low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites is fueling demand for flexible, distributed ground station networks that can support dynamic, high-throughput connectivity. At the same time, financial pressures on geostationary orbit (GEO) operators… Read More »
Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite constellations providing direct to device (D2D) services rely on terrestrial mobile spectrum to operate. This is only possible through an agreement with a mobile network operator, as regulated by national frameworks governing such services. This was the case until recently, when AST SpaceMobile and SpaceX acquired Mobile Satellite Spectrum (MSS)… Read More »