The content team at Channel Partners Newsletter tracks stories of interest to the technology advisor and wider channel communities. Anyone selling communication and connectivity solutions will want to stay abreast of these developing stories or catch up on ones they have missed. All links are valid as of Jan. 14.

Forrester: AI Will Have “Real but Modest” Job Impact

Analyst firm Forrester expects AI to account for 6% of total U.S. job losses – or 10.4 million roles – by 2030 but it will augment 20% of jobs over the next five years. That will force businesses to invest in employee training. The Forrester AI Job Impact Forecast, US, 2025–2030 warns that over-automating roles due to the hype surrounding AI can lead to costly pullbacks, damaged reputations, and weakened employee experiences. Read the Forrester blog.

Verizon Outage Affects Tens of Thousands of Users

Verizon said on Wednesday that it was working to restore its mobile and data services, as more than 170,000 users reported outages to the website Downdetector, which tracks user reports of service disruptions. That number had dropped to about 70,000 by 2:30 p.m. Eastern. Some users said their mobile devices displayed “SOS” in the status bar where their network signal normally appeared. See the New York Times story.

Sandler Partners Benefits From ‘Lone Wolf’ Strategy

Channel Dive explored how services distributor Sandler Partners has resisted consolidation despite industry trends going in the opposite direction. Sandler Partners grew revenue an estimated 24% year-over-year in 2025, as many technology advisors say they prefer its boutique feel. Read the Channel Dive story.

How Charter and Comcast Escaped Verizon Dependency

Light Reading looks at how cable operators Charter and Comcast are using small cells and CBRS (Citizens Broadband Radio Service) spectrum to quickly transform the wireless industry. See the Light Reading story.

Analyst Says Nokia’s Private Network Stance May Encourage Rivals

Nokia’s move to mission-critical private networks and the potential sell-off of its Enterprise Campus Edge unit may shake up its partners in the private network space, according to AvidThink principal Roy Chua. Read the Fierce Network story.

SpaceX Cleared for Starlink Capacity Boost

The Starlink low-Earth orbit (LEO) constellation is about to get bigger and add capacity for broadband Internet and direct-to-device (D2D) mobile services after SpaceX won U.S. regulatory approval for 7,500 more second-generation satellites. The Federal Communications Commission's decision allows SpaceX to deploy a further 7,500 "Gen2" Starlink LEO satellites, upgrade previously authorized satellites and paves the way for next-generation craft to be deployed under the new authorizations. Light Reading has the story.

Meta Compute Faces Problems

Go big or go home seems to be Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg’s motto to data center compute. But going big as Meta wants to is easier said than done. In a Facebook post on Monday, Zuckerberg revealed a new Meta Compute initiative, which he said will see the company “build tens of gigawatts this decade and hundreds of gigawatts or more over time." To say Meta’s initiative is ambitious is an understatement. The scale of the expansion Zuckerberg described dwarfs OpenAI’s 10 GW Stargate plan, which itself has a price tag of around $500 billion. Read about it on Fierce Network.

Microsoft Pledges to Cover Power, Water and Workforce Impacts of AI Data Centers

Microsoft rolled out a five-point “Community-First AI Infrastructure” plan as it accelerates data center expansion across the United States, framing AI infrastructure as the next major chapter in the nation’s long history of large-scale buildouts. The initiative sets out concrete commitments aimed at addressing rising local concerns over electricity costs, water use, workforce impacts, and community benefits tied to hyperscale data center growth. Read the Converge Digest story.