The content team at Channel Partners 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 July 29.

Verizon Lands $1B AI Data Center Connectivity Deal with Google

Verizon CEO Dan Schulman pointed to a $1 billion dark fiber data center connectivity deal with Google on the carrier's second quarter earnings call today to show how the carrier plans to tap into AI infrastructure expansion across the U.S. for new growth. Schulman said the agreement marked the start of new revenue streams that are expected to kick in next year and will build on the carrier's turnaround that accelerated in the second quarter. Read the Light Reading story.

Fortinet Taps Exclusive Networks, TD Synnex to Untangle Cross-Border Security Deals

Fortinet is taking aim at the operational slog that can hamper multinational cybersecurity deployments with a new global distribution model. It’s meant to ease cross-border execution for eligible partners and their customers. In mid-July, the vendor unveiled its global distribution framework, naming Exclusive Networks and TD Synnex as the only two distributors operating under the new tier. Designed to simplify multi-country deals, the framework gives partners a single operational point of contact while accommodating local billing, compliance and support requirements in each market. Read the Channel Dive story.

AT&T Joins Growing List of Telcos Making Quantum Moves in 2026

AT&T has been working with quantum computing technology company D-Wave on improving processing time for network optimization workloads. Now, the Tier 1 operator is expanding that partnership to include outage detection and response, technician routing, network build planning and traffic management, according to an announcement today by D-Wave. Read the Fierce Network story.

AT&T Completes $23B EchoStar Spectrum Deal

AT&T promised an expected boost in 5G capacity across the U.S. from a freshly completed $23 billion acquisition of spectrum assets from EchoStar, highlighting an enhanced ability to meet emerging AI use cases. Closing the deal struck in August 2025 and approved by the US Federal Communications Commission in May adds around 50MHz of spectrum covering almost every region in the US. Read the Mobile World Live story.

Google Hikes Capital Expenditure to $205B, Citing Demand

Google plans to increase its capital expenditure to $205 billion for its 2026 fiscal year to deliver compute capacity as demand rises, executives said during its earnings call last week. The figure increased from previous estimates of up to $190 billion and capital expenditures are expected to continue increasing significantly into 2027, CFO Anat Ashkenazi said during the call. Read the Channel Dive story.

Analys: Musk will Build a Telco Before SpaceX Buys One

The market keeps asking which carrier Elon Musk's SpaceX will buy. It is the wrong question, according to Recon Analytics founder Roger Entner. He writes that an FCC docket discloses that SpaceX is fighting over the upper C-band buildout rules. That points to a company looking to win spectrum at auction and build a satellite and terrestrial hybrid network from the ground up, the same way it built its own dish and its own router. Read the Light Reading story.

Amazon Leo Aims for 5,105 Satellites in D2D Constellation

Amazon Leo wants to deploy up to 5,105 new satellites using Globalstar’s spectrum as part of its upcoming direct-to-device (D2D) satellite cell phone service. Amazon on July 24 filed an application with the FCC saying it intends to support Globalstar’s existing D2D offerings in the 1.6 and 2.4 GHz bands. That service provides millions of Apple device users with emergency messaging. Read the Fierce Network story.

Alkira CEO on Lumen Deal: Lightning Fast Acquisition 'Made Sense' Over IPO

Alkira CEO and founder Amir Khan revealed why the vendor chose a $475 million acquisition by Lumen over going public, revealing the deal – which will see Alkira become the control plane for all of Lumen’s services - came together at quick speed as Lumen’s east-west, north-south ambitions go full throttle. In an exclusive interview with SDxCentral, Khan said the acquisition has so far been “wonderful,” in contrast perhaps with typical startup buyouts. Read the SDxCentral story.

Nvidia Alliance Calls for Open Models to Tackle Rogue Agents

GPU giant Nvidia is spearheading the Open Secure AI Alliance, which also includes Microsoft, SpaceX and other IT leaders – but not Anthropic or OpenAI. The goal of the alliance is to try to prevent events such as the recent hack of Hugging Face (also a member) by an AI agent running a prototype OpenAI mod. Read the Telecoms story.

Data Centers Might Use 2.7% of Texas's Water by 2030

Data center water use in Texas currently sits at around 0.4% of the state’s total consumption. According to research from the Houston Advanced Research Center (HARC), that figure could climb to as much as 2.7% by 2030, and even that estimate, based on 2025 data, is likely already out of date given the scale of new development moving into the state. Read the Capacity story.

Cisco Channel Partner Exec ‘Wildly Pleased’ with Revamped Program Response

Cisco has continued to evolve its recently overhauled 360 channel partner program, moves that a program executive noted included new incentive structures and that the program itself recently went through “critical phase.” Cisco’s partner program came out of its year-plus overhaul in January, with a significant focus on the vendor’s ongoing AI push, while phasing out the two-decade-old Value Incentive Program (VIP). The high-level adjustment was in streamlining its partner evaluation from 22 specializations across 15 business units down to six focused portfolios: networking, security, cloud and AI infrastructure, Splunk, collaboration, and services. Read the SDxCentral story.

All Agentic AI Data Access, Orchestration Hinges on Two Standards

Agentic AI has begun its takeover of customer experience, human resources, cybersecurity, developer toolboxes and other provinces of enterprise IT. Vibe coding, software planning, testing and deployment, customer service automations, one-to-one marketing, and hiring and firing all can be accelerated with the help of agents. But without two open standards -- Model Context Protocol (MCP) for data access, and Agent2Agent (A2A) for agent orchestration -- none of that could happen. This TechTarget story looks at those standards in depth.