IEEE Spectrum’s Top Telecom Stories of 2025

Telecommunications networks initially designed to carry telephone calls and data packets are changing. The last year has seen the first steps toward transforming networks into a more integrated data structure capable of measuring the world, collaboratively processing and sensing it, and even extending into space.

The following list of keys IEEE Spectrum The telecommunications news of 2025 highlights the evolution that the connected (and wireless) world is experiencing today. In other words, a larger story is emerging: how networks are becoming instruments and engines rather than just passive pipes.

And if there is a clear starting point for observing this change, it is the first thoughts around 6G.

1. 5G capacity limits push 6G to focus on infrastructure

Image source: Nokia

Unlike previous steps in telecommunications evolution (particularly bandwidth upgrades from 3G to 4G and 4G to 5G), the key equation for 6G is not “5G and faster downloads.” Nokia Bell Labs, whose President of Principal Research, Peter Vetter, spoke with Spectrum in November, begins testing and deploying key elements of 6G infrastructure five years before 6G devices are expected to come online. And time is running out. Because, as Vetter explains, downlinks for the must-have consumer technology of the coming decade may not be the critical point of the network for too long. The ability of your phone – and that of your future smart glasses – to download streaming video and other content is increasingly not the most difficult problem in telecommunications. On the contrary, if the Internet of Things develops as expected and smart home and city technologies take hold, before long, everything, everywhere will connect to 6G infrastructure for ever-increasing needs. uplinks. And this type of traffic increase could destroy today’s telecommunications networks. That’s why the smart money, starting with but not limited to Nokia Bell Labs, is aiming to solve this massive uplink problem before it appears.

2. Terahertz Tech paves the way for “wireless” chips

Oliver Killig/HZDR

There is a range of electromagnetic spectrum between 0.1 and 10 terahertz that has always been very difficult to exploit technologically. Radio waves and microwaves on one side of “terahertz space” and infrared light on the other each have their own types of electronics and waveguides to manipulate photons and translate them into electrical signals in integrated circuits.

But last year, progress was made in closing the terahertz gap. In an October story, Spectrum donor Meghie Rodrigues shared how a new generation of chips is being developed to unlock bandwidths in the tens and hundreds of gigahertz, far beyond the reach of 5G and just closing in on that long-puzzled terahertz gap. Importantly, the new chips can operate at or near room temperature and on standard semiconductor substrates. To make great progress on the coming challenges in telecommunications, this type of technology will be important to evolve into devices capable of meeting the uplink and downlink demands of 6G.

3. Digging the fiber speeds it up and keeps the signals moving

Seyed Reza Sandoghchi and Ghafour Amouzad Mahdiraji/Microsoft Azure Fiber

As the promise of terahertz data links looms on the horizon, today’s world eagerly awaits technologies that may, in 2030 or beyond, be able to deliver on their early promises. Some communications engineers have relied on a fundamental rule of physics that fiber-optic lines have yet to fully exploit: Light travels about 30 percent faster through air than through glass. In other words, fiber optic lines could be dramatically speeded up if they weren’t solid glass but rather tiny glass tubes housing a core of air.

Spectrum donor John Boyd reported in September on research by a team from Microsoft and the University of Southampton in England that is testing the practicalities of hollow fiber links for extremely low-latency applications such as financial technology, cloud interconnections and sensor networks. Of course, hollow core fiber is not expected to become the new fiber standard anytime soon. But if the manufacturing challenges facing hollow core lines can be overcome, higher capacities and cleaner signals (with fewer nonlinear distortions from glass) could be part of the future of fiber.

4. Aerial lasers aim to solve the internet’s ‘middle mile’

Tara

Some researchers are studying where and when fiber optic connections are even needed. To this end, Google Alphabet spinoff Taara is deploying point-to-point laser data connections. Taara’s technology is not intended to fill all the gaps in tomorrow’s networks, but laser data links have the potential to solve some difficult problems in the “middle.” Mahesh Krishnaswamy, CEO of Taara, spoke to Spectrum in July on the company’s short-term goals. Their technology, Krishnaswamy explained, can enable speeds in the gigabit per second range over miles.

However, it is sensitive to weather conditions. Fog and rain, for example, can scatter the beam. So it’s not perfect for all applications, but the company now provides crucial connectivity in some sub-Saharan African and Southeast Asian settings. Overall, free space optical (FSO) technology is rapid to deploy and high capacity. On the other hand, FSO does not work without line-of-sight connections between the sender and receiver. So where fiber optic connections can be expensive to make (think rivers and ravines, for example), or where permitting is very difficult, FSO could offer the solution.

5. Fiber optic network spots spacecraft returning to Earth

Elisa McGhee

Beyond simple data transmission, what other possibilities are emerging for the networks of tomorrow? In March, Spectrum contributor Charles Choi studied fiber optic cables acting as sensor networks. Researchers from Los Alamos and Colorado State University reported discovering identifiable acoustic signals in fiber optic cables when the NASA OSIRIS-REx The space probe returned to Earth to deliver its asteroid sample capsule in September 2023. The proof-of-concept research revealed potential for closer-to-home applications such as rail intrusion alerts, earthquake early warnings and perimeter security. Best of all, there is no need to install new fiber optic cables to realize the acoustic sensing capabilities that the world’s high-capacity data lines can now accommodate.

6. Quantum messages cross Germany using conventional fibers

Mirko Pittaluga, Yuen San Lo et al.

In April, Choi reported on a Toshiba team in Germany that transmitted quantum cryptographic keys over 250 kilometers. This is a big problem, because no one has yet solved the quantum signal repeater or quantum signal amplifier problem. (Choi talked to us about this in 2023!) So all qubits traveling from point A to point B must do so along a stretch of fiber without any intervening technology. As the story notes, governments and financial institutions will be among the first customers of high-security quantum cryptographic applications.

7. More sophisticated codes to track space probes

Christoph Burgstedt/Scientific Photo Library/Alamy

How far are new network technologies ready to go? In September, contributor Michelle Hampson reported on sophisticated new deep space communications codes that could extend terrestrial networks up to 110 million miles. This is equivalent to 1.2 times the distance between the earth and the sun. NASA, ESA, and commercial players like SpaceX and Blue Origin are considering expanding and strengthening network protocols to meet the punishing rigors of space communications.

Although 6G phones are not expected to be quite up to the task of connecting lunar or Martian missions to Earth, communications technologies developed today are expanding the range of networking possibilities in the years to come. Networking technologies are no longer just about connecting people and their devices. It’s increasingly about building a fabric of sensing and computing data that stretches across Earth and extends far beyond into the solar system.