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 Sept. 23.
Opinion: Lumen Behaves Nothing Like a Carrier
Fierce Network’s Stephen Saunders looks at how CEO Kate Johnson has attacked Lumen’s crisis across debt, technology and culture at the same time. The strategy has moved Lumen from existential danger to a credible path toward growth in the AI economy, and its turnaround offers other carriers a model for escaping debt, commoditization and technological dependency. Read the Fierce Network story.
TD Synnex Links with ThreatCaptain to Ease Security Services Deals
TD Synnex added ThreatCaptain’s sales enablement platform to its managed services provider toolkit. ThreatCaptain’s tools point partners to potential customers and translate technical jargon that can stymie deals into business terms, the companies said. First Mate uses IBM’s annual Cost of a Data Breach study and Verizon’s annual Data Breach Investigations Report, along with MITRE ATT&CK tactical research to compile cost-benefit analyses for MSPs. Read the Channel Dive story.
Light Reading's Leading Lights Awards 2026: The Winners
See who won Light Reading’s Leading Lights Awards in 30 categories, including new, emerging technologies such as agentic AI and network APIs, as well as classic communications infrastructure such as optical systems, data center networking, satellite and non-terrestrial networks, and broadband equipment. Read the Light Reading story.
Telarus Signs Trimio to Sell AI Cost-Cutting Through Advisors
AI FinOps company Trimio signed a partnership agreement with technology services distributor Telarus, giving Telarus technology advisors a platform that illuminates and optimizes spending with GenAI and agentic AI modelmakers, Trimio Founder Max Schuman said on LinkedIn. Expedient co-founder Brad Reynolds joined the five-month-old vendor as CEO in July and has spearheaded approximately 90 updates to the platform since his arrival, Schuman told Channel Dive. Read the Channel Dive story.
Nscale Appoints Frank Slootman Board of Directors
Frank Slootman, chairman and former CEO of Snowflake, has been appointed to AI cloud platform Nscale's board as an independent director. Nscale also appointed Adam Rosman chief legal officer. As CEO from 2019 until 2024, Slootman led Snowflake through its 2020 initial public offering, the largest software IPO on record at the time. He was previously CEO of ServiceNow from 2011, taking the company public in 2012 and expanding it from a help-desk provider into a broader enterprise platform. Prior to that, he was CEO of Data Domain, which he took public in 2007 and which was subsequently acquired by EMC, where he went on to serve as president of the Backup Recovery Systems Division. Read the press release.
UCaaS Mobility's Best-Kept Secret is Inside SIM
In the recent Gartner Magic Quadrant for UCaaS, the authors imply that the telephony decision is separate from chat and meetings. We can see this clearly with Microsoft, which has an estimated 400 million monthly active users for Teams, yet only around 20 million for PSTN telephony. There are numerous other examples, including Slack's enduring popularity despite lacking telephony and an enterprise meetings solution. Read the Light Reading story.
AI Boom Responsible for Most Telecom Kit Revenue Growth
New numbers from analyst firm Dell’Oro reveal that the AI data center boom is main thing driving revenue growth in the telecoms equipment market. Global revenues for all types of telecoms increased 5% year-on-year in the first half of 2026, which is a slight improvement on the 4% annual increase measured last year. These numbers show there’s a new buyer in town in the form of cloud providers, i.e. the companies that build data centers and then make money from renting that compute capacity out. Read the Telecoms story.
SpaceX Terrestrial Wireless Network Could be Challenging
A few weeks ago, SpaceX signaled interest in building its own terrestrial wireless network. The move jolted the communications sector and raised a simple question: does SpaceX really plan to enter a mature, fiercely competitive market, or is something else at work? Building a fourth, nationwide U.S. wireless network would require massive time, capital and execution, while other routes may be more practical. Until the overall picture is clearer, it may be worth pausing before casting SpaceX as the next major U.S. wireless powerhouse. Read the Fierce Network story.