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 Oct. 7.

Avant Pairs Tech Advisors with Professional Services Firms

Avant Communications launched an initiative to match technology advisors with professional services partners at its annual Special Forces Summit. Initially, the program will focus on the implementation of Zoom products before expanding into the rest of Avant’s customer experience portfolio and its other technologies. Avant established a list of vetted and vendor-certified pro services firms that TAs can call upon to support customers in deploying CX solutions. The TSD will ensure that the paired services firms don’t encroach on TA customer accounts. Read the Channel Dive story.

AT&T Channel Vet Takes Avant Leadership Role

AT&T Business’ channel chief Jush Danielson came out of a brief retirement to join technology services distributor Avant Communications. Avant confirmed the exec has moved across to serve as chief partner experience officer, a role that has Danielson overseeing services supplied to its network of advisor partners. Her role is a new one for the channel firm, with Avant saying it plans to “keep investing in the experience, expertise, and support” to help its network of consultants and service providers succeed. Danielson retired from AT&T in August. Read the SDxCentral story.

Sandler Partners’ New president Wants to Build, Not Sell

Investment management veteran Adam Press has joined Sandler Partners as the technology services distributor aims to expand its infrastructure. Press previously served as chairman and CEO for healthcare manufacturer The St. John Companies. Press has also managed investments for the prominent German industrialist Thyssen family. Read the Channel Dive story.

EchoStar Fixes Some of its Mess, but Not All of It

Dish has cleared one bankruptcy hurdle, but there are more financial obstacles ahead. Dish DBS, which runs Dish satellite TV and Sling TV, exited Chapter 11 on Oct. 1, eliminating more than $4.3 billion of outstanding debt. However, Dish Wireless, the unit that is decommissioning its national 5G network and facing a deluge of lawsuits from tower companies and other erstwhile infrastructure partners, is still going through a separate, court-supervised process. See the Light Reading story.

Telecom Revenue Grew in 2026, but don't Celebrate Yet

Dell’Oro Group research reported worldwide telecom capex increased about 5% year-on-year in the first half of 2026, but the good news wasn’t enough for the analyst firm to change its downbeat projections for future telecom growth. Reporting that equipment trends remain closely correlated with capex, Dell’Oro also noted a 5% increase in telecom kit revenue spanning broadband access; microwave and optical transport; mobile core network (MCN); radio access network (RAN); and high-end router and aggregation. Read the SDxCentral story.

Nvidia Says Telcos Favor Open Models for Their Own AI

Nvidia sees telecom operators basing their AI strategies on open models, as they’re more customizable and trustworthy. Nvidia defines open models as “AI models released with publicly accessible weights, data, or training recipes that developers can inspect, customize, and deploy on their own infrastructure.” This is opposed to the closed models used by the two biggest US AI companies: Anthropic and the paradoxically named OpenAI. Read the Telecoms story.

Hitachi Vantara Compares AI Infrastructure Cycle to Fiber Boom

Simon Ninan, SVP of business strategy at Hitachi Vantara, compared the current AI capex cycle to the telecom industry’s heavy fiber investment decades ago. He said operators laid vast amounts of fiber with a sort of “build it and they will come” mentality back then. Years later, that capacity proved critical with the advent of the digital data era. Read the Fierce Network story.

Network Theft Rise, and So Do Arrests

While cable operators and telcos are at each other's throats in their quest for broadband subscribers, they've found common ground in at least one thing: Working together in the fight against network vandalism and the theft of fiber, copper and other types of equipment. Read the Light Reading story.

Starlink Mobile Faces Consumer Resistance, Survey Says

A survey by TD Cowen found that only 34% of respondents said they would consider switching to a Starlink Mobile service if it were available. Another 25% said they would not because they’re satisfied with their current provider and 24% responded that they would not switch because they’re averse to Elon Musk products. Further, 12% said they would not switch due to skepticism about performance/reliability, and 5% would not for other reasons. Read the Fierce Network story.