Vodafone says governments around the world used complete network shutdowns excessively and often without justification. In its report, the company says 313 deliberate shutdowns were recorded across 52 countries in 2025, alongside 47% more hours of full internet blackouts than in the previous year.
The same report says these shutdowns impose social, economic and security costs on citizens while often failing to deliver the policy objectives governments say they want to achieve. Vodafone’s proposed Transparent Governance Framework would treat a shutdown as an exceptional measure of last resort.
What Vodafone’s framework would require
Under the proposed framework, governments would have to show that no less restrictive alternative is available and that the expected benefits outweigh the social, economic and security harms. If a shutdown fails those tests, it should not proceed.
Deutsche Telekom adds Iridium to its IoT roaming stack
Deutsche Telekom is expanding its multi-orbit IoT roaming offer through a partnership with Iridium. The Iridium NTN Direct constellation is now commercially available to Deutsche Telekom’s IoT customers using compatible NB-IoT devices, and the operator already has similar deals with Skylo, Sateliot and OQ Technology.
The partnership gives eligible customers another way to keep IoT devices connected when terrestrial mobile coverage is unavailable.
What this means for IoT roaming buyers
For buyers of connected-device connectivity, the Iridium availability gives Deutsche Telekom another non-terrestrial option to compare against its existing Skylo, Sateliot and OQ Technology arrangements. The key detail is that the offer is already commercially available to compatible NB-IoT devices, not framed as a future trial.