At first glance, a visitor arriving at Telecom Italia’s TIMLab in Turin could be forgiven for thinking it focuses on the history of telecoms rather than its future.

At the start of a crucial year for telecoms, which will see trends such as virtual reality and the IoT gathering pace and the first trials of next generation technologies such as 5G, Mobile Europe rounds up some of the industry’s big predictions for 2018.

Swisscom, DNA and Telenor Hungary announced new LTE milestones over the Christmas period, increasing coverage or speed for their customers.

A highly advanced 4G network and competition from market leader Proximus was behind Orange Belgium’s decision to go all-cellular for its IoT offering, according to its CTO.

Telia has trialled the use of IoT connectivity on its LTE network as it looks ahead to a commercial launch of the technology.

Technology combining licensed and unlicensed spectrum will lead to a drastic reduction in the cost of deploying in-building network solutions, new research has claimed.

UK operator EE is pledging tens of millions of pounds to improve coverage on railway networks, as it announced a new measurement of LTE quality.

Magyar Telekom is tempting enterprises to the Internet of Things by launching a new NB-IoT network in Budapest.

The CEO of Swiss operator Salt has launched an astonishing criticism of testing agency P3, accusing it of attacking its staff, suppliers and customers.

Ukrainian operator lifecell is pitching LTE to enterprises as it prepares for the imminent commercial launch of the service.

Vodafone has topped the latest network ranking of Spain’s mobile operators, as Orange and Yoigo gained ground on second placed Movistar.

Huawei has unveiled a new base station that it claims paves the way for 5G, alongside a new Massive MIMO offering.

Intel has launched new modems for 5G and LTE as operators prepare to upgrade their networks.

Connected cars, the cellular Internet of Things and LTE technologies will fuel the growth of diameter signalling in the coming years, a new report has claimed.

Swisscom is planning to deploy nationwide Gigabit LTE coverage from next year and 5G from 2020, as part of a wide-ranging network transformation project it is conducting with Ericsson.

Greenlandic operator TELE-POST has launched a network transformation project aimed at increasing the speed, capacity and coverage of its services.

LTE speeds are starting to decline in developed markets as operators switch focus to ubiquitous coverage, a new study of the 4G market has found.

BITE has almost doubled its number of LTE-Advanced compatible base stations across Latvia after mobile data users increased by 50 percent during the past year.

The consumer launch of Deutsche Telekom and Inmarsat's in-flight Wi-Fi service, previously arranged for this summer with airline giant IAG, has been pushed back to 2018, Mobile Europe can reveal.

VEON, Qualcomm and Huawei have trialled licence assisted access technology, as the Russian operator looks to use it to bolster its connectivity portfolio on the road to 5G.