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 »
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 »
Networking is undergoing its most explosive transformation since the dotcom era, driven by the growing demands of AI infrastructure. This shift is happening quietly, without the fanfare that surrounds AI applications or GPUs, yet its impact is just as profound. Connectivity at every level—device, server, rack, and data center—is being fundamentally reengineered to support the… Read More »
On August 7, 2025, the FCC adopted new rules governing subsea cable landing licenses, marking the first major update in over two decades. This move reflects a broader shift in U.S. policy that treats economic security as national security, with implications for infrastructure deployment, investment strategy, and global data flows. The new framework introduces formal… Read More »
High Altitude Platform Systems (HAPS) have gained increasing attention as a tactical tool in the defense sector; however, their adoption as a communication solution has lagged, with several attempts failing due to high costs. With a new generation of active startups and projects in this area, we outline some of the critical hurdles that HAPS—as… Read More »
In today’s geopolitically charged environment, LEO satellite constellations represent more than mere communication networks—they are symbols of power and sovereignty, and vital for national security. In this context, strategic imperatives outweigh financial considerations. This is the backdrop for China’s ambitious push to develop its own satellite constellations. In this new space race, China’s mega-constellations are… Read More »
A confluence of factors drives the race to build sovereign AI infrastructure—Generative AI and Large Language Models (LLMs), escalating geopolitical and national security concerns, and NVIDIA’s aggressive expansion into the data center market with its powerful GPU hardware and software stack that fuels the next generation of neoclouds. As a result, “AI Factories” have emerged… Read More »
Our Xona Partners team collaborated to write this Insight Note following Mobile World Congress 2025 to provide a comprehensive evaluation of the current state of the telecom industry. In this paper, we analyze critical trends—such as the rise of AI-driven network intelligence and the convergence of non-terrestrial networks (NTN) with mobile connectivity. We also look… Read More »
I wanted to share a few thoughts as Starlink approaches 5 million subscribers—a milestone achieved in just over 4 years since launching its beta service in November 2020. This growth is particularly impressive when compared to the performance of traditional satellite service providers. Destruction in the GEO broadband market A significant portion of Starlink’s growth… Read More »