Under Lyor Cohen, the global head of music for Google and YouTube, the platform has partnered with several telecom giants—including SoftBank, LG U+, and Vodafone—to offer their customers trial and introductory access to YouTube Premium.

Even so, the package has received some criticism for failing to address the root causes of unaffordable connection: regional telecom monopolization and price control. Much of the funding may still end up flowing through large conglomerates like AT&T and Charter Communications.

However, the telecoms later reached a deal with the Department of Transportation to delay the launch to January 19. The joint letter from the telecoms was in response to a memo Buttigieg and FAA Administrator Steve Dickson sent last week outlining 5G's potential for "widespread and unacceptable disruption,” followed by a request to delay the rollout for two more weeks.

On today's podcast episode, in our "Retail Me This, Retail Me That" segment, we discuss what’s important in a good omnichannel experience, where in-store retail media is headed, and how stores can tailor experiential and experimental tech to build a more robust customer profile. Then, for "Pop-Up Rankings," we rank two retailers that are doing store digitization well and two that could possibly use a bit of work. Join our analyst Sara Lebow as she hosts analysts Arielle Feger and Zak Stambor.

A survey of 2,190 executives from nine countries, representing banking/financial, insurance, telecom, retail, HC/LC, and government, found that 67% of CEOs often prefer to make decisions based on their intuition and experience rather than insights from data analytics, per KPMG.

It also solves quantum computing’s nagging space and temperature constraints with its networking hardware able to fit into server racks of existing telecom infrastructure and able to function at room temperature as opposed to the typical absolute zero. At the same time, its memory device can transmit quantum data with 95% fidelity—an elusive feat for the industry.

He has worked with leading brands across telecommunications, retail, quick-service restaurants, financial services, consumer product goods, agencies, and utility industries. Jonathan has built custom segmentation frameworks for his clients, leveraging demographic, psychographic, first-party, and third-party data assets to provide an actionable roadmap to their strategy.

This is an ideal scenario for players like Amazon and Facebook, enabling them to commandeer infrastructure projects in developing countries whose local telecom companies might not be able to afford to invest in expensive infrastructure.

Only 51.4% of the global population had access to the internet in 2019, according to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). Globally, 72% of urban households had access to the internet, compared with only 37% of rural ones.

Lockheed Martin retains the distinction of being the industry leader in defense-focused telecommunications and computing applications. Each of the companies collaborating on defense projects can develop more secure and robust consumer or private 5G solutions and protocols.

Telecom industry officials are disputing the claims and the need for more safeguards, pointing to available evidence that doesn't show the proposed 5G signals can interfere with flight equipment. Further, carriers in other countries are using the frequencies in question.

Broadcom, which makes an array of chips used in mobile phones and telecom networks, could expand into cloud services and enable expansion into data centers with VMware’s technology. VMware—a cloud computing and virtualization company—has a $40 million market valuation and was previously a subsidiary of Dell Computers.

Building an IoT and edge-computing giant: The combination of Broadcom’s mobile phone and telecom network chips and VMware’s software positions Broadcom as a leader in data-center and cloud-computing solutions. The deal is the second-biggest tech acquisition this year behind Microsoft’s monumental purchase of Activision Blizzard for $70 billion in January. That deal is expected to close by June 2023.

The news: Meta went after Apple for its AppTrackingTransparency (ATT) policy and other restrictions, which it called “self-serving,” in a request for comment with the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) about the state of competition in the mobile app industry. The filing follows an April request from the NTIA for public comments regarding the mobile app ecosystem.

CPG, along with entertainment, computing products and consumer electronics, financial services, and telecom will all continue to spend a greater share on mobile than the national average.

Major UK banks including Lloyds, Barclays, TSB, and Santander are specifically calling out Facebook, Google, and other tech and telecom giants for their role in online fraud. The banks believe that the “polluter pays” principle should require these companies to pay into a communal account that reimburses online fraud victims.

Companies like India’s Bharti Airtel and Elon Musk’s Starlink have also been looking to launch satellite broadband. 5G rollout: India’s telecommunications regulator expects to complete its allocation of 5G spectrum by August. Ericsson and Bharti Airtel are already conducting 5G trials in rural areas.

International Telecommunications Union (ITU). Juniper Research. Kagan. Media Partners Asia. Meta (formerly Facebook). Niko Partners. Ookla. Temasek. The Economist Intelligence Unit. The Trade Desk.

UK Telecom BT Group is planning to eliminate 55,000 jobs and will replace thousands of them with AI over the next five to seven years. Our take: A call for regulation by first-movers and leading AI companies could allow them to seize the narrative, adversely affecting startups that could find themselves shackled by future regulation.

While other industries have also allocated smaller shares of their budgets to search since 2016, only the telecom and computing products/consumer electronics industries will have lowered search’s share of their ad spending as much as media by 2024.

Embracing mobile gives consumers access to a branded experience both online and in-store, while in-store technologies bring the digital world into the physical. To cater to shoppers no matter where or how they shop, brands should also make sure they’re balancing in-store and online rewards as well as D2C and wholesale commerce.

But the bank realized that consumers of all ages still crave some human interaction. 95% of consumers say it’s helpful to switch instantly from an online chat to a phone call, and 54% say they’re more comfortable speaking with a human about sensitive financial matters, according to a report from telecom and cloud provider Sinch.

It also aims to replicate its model in Mexico where it offers a range of options such as telecom, financial services, and healthcare. The big takeaway: Walmart is making long-term bets that should pay off whether the economy heads south and consumers look for value, or if conditions improve and shoppers focus on convenience. Go further: Read our Retail Media Ad Spending Forecast H1 2023 report.