Teleforum 2026: Luxembourg

This year, Teleforum took place in the picturesque location of Luxembourg, a land of castles. Attended by an elite group of small-state operators, the event aims to address the unique challenges they face.

As specialist signalling vendors, we were delighted to be invited to attend the event for the second time. Our CEO, Sanjeev Verma, and Sales Manager, Ben Teversham, enjoyed discussing small-state mobile operator topics with the Teleforum delegates.

What is the Teleforum of Telecom Operators of Small States about?

The purpose of Teleforum is to pool resources to tackle the challenges that small-state MNOs face. Through workshops, training, and discussions, the group shares knowledge on legal, regulatory, technical and commercial aspects of small-state telecoms.

The underlying issue the MNOs contend with is one of scale. Small-state operators face many of the same problems as operators in big states. However, their small customer base increases the risks linked to strategic investment decisions. Additionally, in a small country, business is more personal, and customers more readily demand high-quality service.

This unique pressure drives small-state operators to adapt and evolve in unique ways. Some choose to develop specialist services, some expand their reach into other regions, and some provide a testbed for new technologies. As a result, operators in large nations can often learn from these dynamic telco powerhouses.

Our Teleforum 2026 presentation: 5G SA Core Network Optimisation

Ben addressed Teleforum’s members on the topic of 5G Standalone (5G SA) optimisation, specifically:

5G Non-Standalone (NSA) to 5G SA interworking, where each core is from a separate vendor.
Flexible 5G SA roaming architectures to reduce costs associated with roaming complexity.
Signalling harmonisation, throttling and routing to avoid network overload.

You can access the slides here.

Delegates were rapt by Ben’s presentation. Following the talk, he and Sanjeev explained in greater detail how Squire Technologies delivers excellent results in complex 5G rollouts.

Luxembourg, a small state with a lot of voice

Typically, members of Teleforum operate in states with populations of less than two million people. However, many are also characterised by their geography, as island nations or small landlocked regions, such as Luxembourg.

Luxembourg features many of the obstacles small-state operators face, such as geographical issues. A third of the country is mountainous, creating coverage challenges. However, arguably, the population constraints are the bigger concern.

Luxembourg has fewer than 700,000 citizens, and almost half its workforce commutes in from surrounding countries every day. Being just 2,586 square kilometres, makes commuting from France, Germany and Belgium relatively simple.

Luxembourg city's Old town, Duchy of Luxembourg

The low population and diversity of nationalities, Luxembourg has over 170 nationalities, means mobile network operators must contend with:

Limited access to workers with the skills they need.
Varied consumer demands from a diverse population.
A huge number of daily roamers.
Extremely high competition over a small number of possible subscribers.
Considerable costs linked to investments like 5G, which they must make to stay competitive.

Nevertheless, Luxembourg is in a better condition than some other states. Being Europe’s centre for financial investment management has made it one of the top three richest countries in the world per capita for over 15 years. As a result, the government can invest in initiatives to support the industry.

“Teleforum 2026 was great, and we offer our thanks to the organisers for inviting us.

“The critical concern for all mobile network operators that want to optimise their networks, whether rolling out 5G Standalone, enhancing 4G networks, or interworking multi-generation networks, is to break out of vendor lock-in.

“It might be costly at first, but it gives operators the freedom to promptly make revenue-generating changes cost-effectively and quickly.”

Ben Teversham, Sales Manager at Squire Technologies

Find out more about Squire Technologies’ 5G signalling solutions here.

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