IEEE Spectrum’s top communications stories for 2025

Telecommunications networks that were originally built for making phone calls and data packets are now undergoing a radical transformation. The past year has seen early steps toward networks becoming a more integrated data fabric that can collaboratively measure, process, and sense the world, and even extend into outer space.

The following list of keys IEEE Spectrum Telecom news stories from 2025 underscore the evolution the connected (and wireless) world is experiencing today. In other words, there is a bigger story now emerging about how networks are becoming tools and engines rather than just passive pipes.

If there’s a clear starting point for watching this shift happen, it’s in early thinking about 6G.

1. Capacity limits in 5G networks prompt a focus on 6G infrastructure

Image source: Nokia

Unlike previous changes in telecommunications evolution (particularly bandwidth upgrades from 3G to 4G and from 4G to 5G), the main equation for 6G is not “5G plus faster downloads”. Nokia Bell Laboratorieswho sat down with Head of Basic Research Peter Vetter for a conversation range In November, it began piloting and testing key parts of the 6G infrastructure five years before 6G devices were expected to come online. And time is tight. Because, as Vetter explains, the consumer technology downlinks that are indispensable in the next decade may not be the network’s main crunch point for much longer. The ability of your phone — and the ability of your future smart glasses — to download streaming video and other content is an increasingly difficult communications issue. Instead, if the Internet of Things expands as expected, and smart home and smart city technology takes hold, then before too long, everything everywhere will be connected to the 6G infrastructure of more and more large devices. Uplinks. This type of traffic increase could break today’s communications networks. That’s why the smart money, starting with Nokia Bell Labs but not limited to, is working on solving this huge uplink problem before it arises.

2. Terahertz technology sets the stage for “wireless” chips.

Oliver Killig/HZDR

There is a range of the electromagnetic spectrum between 0.1 and 10 terahertz that has historically been very difficult to harness technically. Radio waves and microwaves on one side of the “Terahertz gap“Infrared, on the other hand, each has its own types of electronics and waveguides to process photons and translate them back and forth into electrical signals in integrated circuits.

But the past year has seen progress in closing the terahertz gap. In a story from October, range contributor Miggy Rodriguez has chronicled how a new breed of chips were developed to open up frequency bands of tens and hundreds of gigahertz, far beyond 5G, and coming within striking distance of the long-elusive terahertz gap. Crucially, the new chips can operate at or near room temperature and on standard semiconductor substrates. To make significant progress in the upcoming communications challenges, this type of technology will be important to scale up and introduce into devices that can meet the uplink and downlink requirements of 6G.

3. Unloading the fibers speeds them up and keeps the signals moving

Seyed Reza Sandoghchi and Ghafour Amouzad Mahdiraji/Microsoft Azure Fiber

While the promise of terahertz data links looms on the horizon, the world today also cannot wait for technologies that, in 2030 or later, may be able to deliver on their early promise. Some communications engineers rely on a basic rule of physics that fiber-optic lines have yet to fully exploit: Light travels 30 percent faster through air than through glass. In other words, fiber optic lines could be greatly sped up if they were not solid glass, but rather small glass tubes protecting an air core.

range contributor John Boyd reported in September on research by a team at Microsoft and the University of Southampton in England testing the practicalities of hollow fiber connections for ultra-low-latency applications such as fintech, cloud connectivity and sensor networks. Hollow fiber is not expected to become the new fiber standard any time soon, that much is clear. But if the manufacturing challenges of hollow lines can be overcome, higher amplitudes and cleaner signals (with fewer non-linear glass distortions) may be part of the future of fibers.

4. Over-the-air lasers aim to solve the “middle mile” of the Internet

direct

Some researchers are investigating where and when fiber connections are needed at all. To that end, Taara, a company spun off from Alphabet’s Google, is working on providing point-to-point laser data communications. Taara’s technology is not intended to fill every gap in tomorrow’s networks, but laser data links have the potential to solve some difficult “middle mile” problems. Taara CEO Mahesh Krishnaswamy spoke range In July about the company’s near-term goals. Krishnaswamy explained that their technology can enable gigabit-per-second speeds across kilometers.

However, they are sensitive to the weather. For example, fog and rain can scatter the beam. So it’s not ideal for every application, but the company is now providing critical connectivity in some areas of Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia. Free space optical (FSO) technology is generally characterized by rapid deployment and high capacity. On the other hand, FSO does not work without line-of-sight communications between sender and receiver. Therefore, when fiber connections are too expensive to establish (rivers and valleys, for example), or when licensing is too difficult, FSO can provide the only solution.

5. A fiber-optic network monitors the return of spacecraft to Earth

Elissa McGee

Beyond just data transfer, what other possibilities are emerging for tomorrow’s networks? In March, range Contributor Charles Choi Investigation of towed fiber optic cables for duplex service as sensor networks. Researchers at Los Alamos and Colorado State University report finding recognizable audio signals in fiber cables when they are connected NASA OSIRIS-REx The space probe returned to Earth to deliver its capsule containing asteroid samples in September 2023. Proof-of-concept research revealed the potential for applications closer to home such as railway intrusion warnings, earthquake early warnings, and perimeter security. Best of all, there is no need to install new fiber cables to achieve the acoustic sensing capabilities that the world’s highest capacity data lines may now have.

6. Quantum messages cross Germany using conventional fibres

Merek Fertag, Come et al.

In April, Choi reported on a Toshiba team in Germany transmitting quantum encryption keys over a distance of 250 kilometers. This is a big problem, because no one has been able to solve the quantum signal repeater or quantum signal amplifier problem yet. (Choi reported on this topic in 2023!) So any qubits going from point A to point B would need to do so along a ribbon of fiber with no technology in between. As the story suggests, governments and financial institutions will be among the first customers for highly secure quantum cryptography applications.

7. More advanced codes for tracking deep space sensors

Christoph Borgstedt/Scientific Image Library/Alamy

How far are new networking technologies ready to go? In September, Michelle Hampson reported on cutting-edge new codes for deep space communications that could extend terrestrial networks to a distance of 180 million kilometres. This is equivalent to 1.2 times the distance between the Earth and the Sun. NASA, the European Space Agency, and commercial players such as SpaceX and Blue Origin are looking to expand and strengthen network protocols to meet the harsh demands of space communications.

While 6G phones are not expected to be up to the task of connecting lunar or Martian missions to Earth, communications technologies being developed today are expanding networking capabilities in the coming years. Networking technologies are no longer just about connecting people and their devices. They are increasingly focused on building a fabric of sensing and computing data that spans the Earth and extends far beyond the solar system.