AvidThink 2026 May Recap

In May, Roy traveled to Orlando for Extreme’s customer and partner event, Extreme Connect; attended Lightmatter’s first Interconnect event; and attended the AI Networking Summit (ONUG) in Dallas.

We continue to receive positive feedback on our recently launched Next-Gen Data Center Networking Report, 2026 Edition, which covers the latest in Scale-Up, Scale-Out, and Scale-Across. It is a comprehensive report that covers the different domains of networking, the workload layers above the network, the communication libraries (NCCL, RCCL, etc.), and how the stack interacts. Other topics covered include the optical versus copper debate and power and energy efficiency. Download it now and let us know what you think. You will find the report ready for download, along with a collection of executive insights on the topics, on our NextGenInfra.io site.

Thanks to our media partner, Jim Carroll, we have fresh content from FiberConnect 2026. It joins the other video showcases from Upperside World Congress 2026, as well as our earlier showcase from OFC 2026. If you missed our social media post, celebrate with us as we reach 100,000 subscribers on our joint YouTube channel, @nextgeninfra.io. Subscribe today! It’s taken us 4 years to build up a go-to resource for what’s next in infrastructure (esp. networking), and we’d like to thank all our subscribers and the interviewees who make up our more than 1,500 video interviews on the channel.

Here's what's in store for this month's newsletter:

Visit NextGenInfra.io to check out the latest video showcases and download your copy of our Data Center Networking Report.

—The AvidThink Team

Extreme Connect in Orlando, Florida

Extreme has been a vendor that I’ve tracked for a long time. One reason, aside from it being a networking company in our coverage area, is that the assets of a company I co-founded in 2004, idEngines, were acquired by the company there through its acquisition of Avaya’s enterprise networking assets. idEngines was a network identity and access control company (some call it zero-trust access before the term “zero-trust” was established) with about 130 companies on its books when the 2008 global financial crisis hit, and we were forced to sell our assets to Nortel, which was subsequently acquired by Avaya.

Nevertheless, Extreme Networks has seen its market fortunes go up and down, and in the last few years it’s been on a tear — growing revenue in the double digits for the last five quarters. Spending time at their customer and partner event was helpful to get a feel for the nature of their business, and I want to thank the Extreme Networks leadership and marketing/AR team for making that possible. Talking to the customers there gave me a feel for “middle America,” but sprinkled among them were a number of Fortune 500 companies that rely on Extreme Networks for their corporate networks.

Kudos to Extreme Networks for threading the needle between driving product innovation while bringing along their diverse customer base and a wide product portfolio, rolling up their many acquisitions (Avaya, Nortel, Enterasys, Aerohive, Zebra, Ipanema from InfoVista, etc). Their unified Platform ONE story, the convenience of their Fabric (many customers and partners I spoke to really liked its ease of deployment), and a pragmatic yet aggressive AI and agentic approach. Many customers (school districts, state and local government, mid-sized enterprises) have tight budgets and can’t afford forklift upgrades but want improved manageability, visibility, and security. So far, it seems the team there is doing a good job of growing revenue and keeping customers on a drumbeat roadmap that leads them through a measured upgrade journey.

AI Networking Summit in Dallas (Frisco), Texas

I always like attending Nick Lippis’ ONUG events because they give me a chance to catch up with the enterprise networking IT folks. Learning about their latest concerns and initiatives around data center, WAN, campus, and branch connectivity, along with their view of current security challenges, provides a different vantage point on the market (as opposed to the carrier or hyperscaler viewpoints I usually hear). Just like every other conference this year, AI and agentic networking took center stage. Most of my conversations were around private data center networks (inferencing or even pre-training), agentic workflows (guardrails, reliability, costs), and supporting any future AI workload impact on enterprise networks (no major changes beyond DCI to date).

Lightmatter Interconnect 2026 in Mountain View, California

When many of us industry analysts get tapped by the hedge funds or equity investors on our views on data center networking, the company Lightmatter always seems to come up (almost as often as the CPO, LPO, and now XPO questions). It’s one of the highest-profile startups in photonics. Unsurprising, given that they’ve raised $850M in total and their $400M Series D in October 2024 pegged the company at $4.4B in valuation. Lightmatter held its first corporate event, “Interconnect 2026,” at its fancy new digs in downtown Mountain View on May 21st. I appreciated the opportunity to join the event and hear their latest pitch. Their story is coming together nicely and is much easier to understand now (even for a dense analyst like me). Really enjoyed a lab tour of their latest technologies as they bring them to market.

From their original mission to build photonic computing platforms, they’ve extracted key technologies that can be licensed and deployed within AI data centers to improve connectivity while achieving high energy efficiency. BTW, they did build one of the world’s first photonic computing platforms, Envise, in 2021. And I think they mentioned at the event that it would soon be housed at the nearby Computer History Museum. BTW, we did cover Lightmatter in our Data Center Networking Report 2026 edition, so you’re welcome to check it out.

Two more trips before I take a break for summer: OCP Canada Tech Day in Montreal next week, and TM Forum DTW Ignite in Copenhagen the week of June 22nd. Looking forward to seeing you there.

– Roy for the AvidThink Team

Check out our most recent articles on the AvidThink website:

If you haven’t yet downloaded your copy of the 2026 Edition of our Data Center Networking Report. don’t delay further! Grab your copy now. And while you are there, watch our exclusive interviews with leading vendors in the field, including: Arrcus, DriveNets, Marvell, Nokia, Upscale AI, Aria Networks, Broadcom, Ayar, Ciena, Credo, Lightmatter, and Clockwork.

Airtel Launches India’s First Commercial 5G Network Slicing Service
Airtel launched Priority Postpaid, India’s first commercial 5G network slicing service, to give premium users faster connectivity during congestion. The service triggered a net neutrality debate, but Airtel told India’s Department of Telecommunications it complies with TRAI rules and does not throttle or block other users. Rival Jio also defended slicing as a lawful 5G capability when preferential pricing is technically justified.

T-Mobile and Ericsson Test AI-Native Scheduler on Live 5G-Advanced Network
T-Mobile and Ericsson are testing an AI-native scheduler with link adaptation on T-Mobile’s live 5G-Advanced network to predict real-time network changes. The neural-network-based scheduler runs on Ericsson hardware and replaces fixed RAN rules with adaptive decisions based on spectrum conditions. Ericsson said it improved spectrum efficiency by 10% and downlink throughput by up to 15% across different geographies.

Ericsson Study Finds Gap Between 5G and AI Ambitions and Deployments
An Ericsson survey of 455 senior telecom executives found that 90% are confident they can unlock new revenue from AI and 5G, but 70% have not deployed the technologies they view as critical. Another 80% said future growth depends on rapid deployment. Respondents cited private 5G and enterprise connectivity at 49%, consumer and enterprise digital services at 44%, and wide-area IoT at 40% as key opportunities.

Omdia and Dell’Oro Data Show Flat Global RAN Market
Omdia and Dell’Oro said Q1 global RAN growth was offset by North American weakness, leaving the market broadly flat. Omdia estimated the market at about $8 billion, with growth outside North America and strength in Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Algeria, Morocco, and Turkey. Dell’Oro said worldwide RAN revenue, excluding services, rose at a low single-digit rate year over year as operators brace for slower mobile broadband growth.

BT Plans Commercial 5G Network Slicing Launch This Summer
BT plans to launch commercial 5G network slicing before the end of the summer on its 5G Standalone network, branded 5G+. The announcement coincided with BT being named official telecom partner for UEFA Euro 2028 in the UK and Ireland. Slicing partitions one physical network into multiple virtual networks, creating dedicated priority lanes for specific applications.

6G Standardization Stays on Track but AI Dominates Operator Attention
6G standardization remains on schedule, with pre-commercial trials expected later this decade, but AI is drawing more operator attention because it already improves customer service and network maintenance. Experts still argue AI’s long-term success will depend on 5G and 6G network capabilities. Ericsson CEO Börje Ekholm said AI-native 6G should deliver faster upload speeds than 5G and greater energy efficiency through better spectrum use.

First 6G Specifications Could Arrive in June 2026
The first 6G specifications could arrive in June 2026 as part of 3GPP Release 21, with work continuing into early 2027. 3GPP is developing 6G in parallel with 5G Advanced to maintain continuity and ensure the tracks complement each other. Commercial 6G is expected around 2030, while the U.S. may preview it during the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics through NTIA-backed demonstrations.

AT&T Executive Says Consumers Are Not Demanding 6G Yet
AT&T’s Jenifer Robertson said consumers are not yet demanding 6G and warned the transition must be software-based, not require truck rolls to every cell site. AT&T wants 6G built on open architecture, zero-trust security, and universally compatible spectrum. Robertson also criticized reserving all U.S. 6 GHz spectrum for unlicensed Wi-Fi while other countries consider it for 6G.

Juniper Research Expects U.S., South Korea, and China to Lead Early 6G Adoption
Juniper Research expects the first commercial 6G networks as early as 2029, with the U.S. and South Korea among early leaders and initial 3GPP specs finalized by 2028. Global 6G connections are projected to reach 4.6 million in 2029 and 2.9 billion by 2035. The Far East and China could account for nearly three-quarters of global 6G connections by 2030, while Western Europe and the UK may lag due to 5G deployment and monetization challenges.

Nutanix CEO Says Bare-Metal Cloud Can Beat On-Prem on Cost and Availability
Nutanix CEO Rajiv Ramaswami said hyperscalers can offer bare-metal servers cheaper and faster than on-prem hardware because of their component purchasing power. Bulk memory and SSD buying helps cloud providers avoid enterprise hardware bottlenecks and high component costs, which may persist into next year. For AI infrastructure, however, many enterprises still prefer on-prem deployments to keep costs predictable while ROI remains uncertain.

O2 Germany Begins Public Cloud Migration for 4G and 5G Voice Services
O2 Telefónica Germany began migrating customers to Mavenir’s cloud-native IMS platform on AWS after more than a year of preparation. Mavenir said the first 100,000 users moved in Q1, making Telefónica the first European telco to place 4G and 5G voice services in a public cloud. The IMS platform supports VoLTE, Voice over New Radio, voice over Wi-Fi, and voice over non-terrestrial network, with several million customers moving this year and completion planned for 2027.

Deutsche Telekom’s T Cloud Public Wins German Government Cloud and AI Deal
Deutsche Telekom’s T Cloud Public won a framework agreement to provide cloud and AI services to the German government. The deal reflects European demand for sovereign cloud infrastructure that keeps data within national borders and supports GDPR compliance. DT says T Cloud Public has reached 80% core feature parity with leading clouds and provides EU-compliant processing in European data centers protected from foreign access.

SoftBank Launches Sovereign GPU Cloud Infrastructure for Japan
SoftBank introduced GPU cloud infrastructure scheduled for October to support AI workloads for Japanese enterprises and government entities. The platform will integrate with SoftBank’s Infrinia AI Cloud OS and offer Kubernetes-as-a-service and inference-as-a-service for large language models. CEO Junichi Miyakawa said SoftBank aims to become a neocloud provider for secure, localized digital transformation in Japan.

Verizon Joins Anthropic’s Project Glasswing to Test Claude Mythos Security Risks
Verizon became the first telco to join Anthropic’s Project Glasswing, which evaluates Claude Mythos Preview for cybersecurity risks before broader release. Anthropic launched the project because Mythos can identify coding flaws that could be exploited to bypass security controls. Verizon tested the model for network vulnerabilities, while the UK AI Security Institute said Mythos advanced the state of the art but mainly succeeded against small, weakly defended enterprise systems.

Google and Blackstone Plan $5 Billion TPU-Based Neocloud Venture
Google and Blackstone are forming a $5 billion joint venture to launch N1, a U.S.-based neocloud targeting 500 MW of data center capacity by next year. Unlike Nvidia GPU-heavy neoclouds, N1 will use Google TPUs, helping Google scale TPU manufacturing and potentially lower costs. Analyst Jack Gold said 500 MW is substantial but smaller than CoreWeave-scale footprints, while TPU efficiency could appeal to small and mid-market enterprises.

Ericsson and KDDI Show AI-Driven Uplink Gains in Japanese Field Trial
Ericsson and KDDI completed a large-scale field trial of AI-powered uplink optimization on a commercial mobile network in Japan. The trial used Ericsson’s AI-driven Uplink Interference Optimizer rApp on the Ericsson Intelligent Automation Platform, covering about 1,500 5G cells and 1,300 4G cells, with a FYRA third-party rApp also tested. Results included 9.6% average 4G throughput improvement, 3.1% 5G throughput improvement, 27% better 5G SINR, and higher uplink modulation and spectral efficiency.

KDDI Unveils $7.5 Billion AI Infrastructure Strategy
KDDI announced a three-year, $7.5 billion strategy for an “AI-native society” where AI is embedded in daily life. The plan centers on a digital belt spanning low-latency transport and access networks, AI data centers, satellite ground stations, and subsea cables. KDDI is also integrating Starlink low Earth orbit connectivity and pursuing AI-enabled network automation with Ericsson.

Telcos Explore AI Token Plans as a New Monetization Model
Personal AI founder Suman Kanuganti said telcos could monetize AI through metered token packages, similar to legacy voice, text, and data plans. Tokens would fund personalized AI agents embedded in the network for caller context, security, and privacy services. Analysts are skeptical, with Recon Analytics’ Roger Entner noting that more than a quarter of mobile customers already use AI daily and many AI providers already sell bucket-based access plans.

Cisco Predicts AI Will Drive Major Network Traffic Growth
Cisco’s inaugural “AI Impact on Wide Area Networks” report predicts consumer AI traffic will grow about 6.6 times by the mid-2030s. Cisco says this would create 63% more network growth than standard, non-AI projections, driven by agentic AI systems. Although AI inference traffic is small today versus video streaming, Cisco projects it could reach 25% of all network traffic by 2035.

Samsung and Qualcomm Validate 5G FWA Uplink Gains on Virtualized RAN
Samsung and Qualcomm validated 5G Power Class 1 capability for fixed wireless access on a fully virtualized RAN. The trial used Samsung’s vRAN stack, 3.7 GHz massive MIMO radios, and Qualcomm’s X85 chipset, marking what the companies called the first pairing of higher-power device transmission with software-driven RAN. The test delivered up to 10x higher cell-edge uplink throughput than Power Class 1.5 and extended usable coverage by up to 40%.

Linux Foundation’s OCUDU Ecosystem Foundation Expands Open RAN Membership
The Linux Foundation’s OCUDU Ecosystem Foundation added five general members and 16 associate members from academia, technology providers, and research organizations. The group is developing a carrier-grade, cloud-native open-source RAN centralized unit and distributed unit. OCUDU aims to provide the software, reference architectures, and validation frameworks needed to scale Open RAN deployments.

Globalstar Builds Private 5G Strategy Around XCOM RAN and Supercell Architecture
Globalstar is expanding its terrestrial private 5G business through XCOM RAN for industrial automation. The platform uses a proprietary Supercell architecture based on O-RAN standards and includes XCOM radios, XCOM Core, and XCOM Orchestrator for multi-tenant management. Globalstar says it supports Band n48 in the U.S., Band n78 in Europe and parts of Asia, and licensed Band n53, while delivering four times the capacity of current private 5G offerings and reducing RF design needs.

SASE Vendors Move to Secure AI Agents and Other Non-Human Users
SASE platforms were built for human users, but autonomous AI agents are creating a security gap around non-human identities. Versa, Cisco, and Palo Alto Networks are adapting zero-trust architectures for entities without traditional login credentials but with broad access privileges. Versa’s Kevin Sheu said non-human users could outnumber human users by 80 to 1, creating authentication, authorization, and auditability challenges for telcos using agentic AI in network operations.

Versa Adds Zero Trust Controls for AI Agent Actions
Versa introduced a patent-pending Zero Trust architecture that validates AI agent actions before execution. The system checks each agent-generated step against user identity, role-based access, and system policies, helping enterprises control invisible actions triggered by prompts. Delivered through Versa Verbo and integrated with VersaONE Universal SASE, it lets administrators decide which actions run automatically, require human validation, or are blocked by risk level.

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