How Did Big Tech Celebrate Earth Day 2020?

The pandemic might have forced Earth Day 2020 indoors but that didn’t stop some of the world largest organizations from announcing action on the sidelines.

SD-WAN Complexity Remains Adoption Burden, Says Aryaka

Network complexity remains the biggest barrier to enterprises as they implement SD-WAN, according to Aryaka’s 2020 State of the WAN report. The vendor’s fourth-annual report surveyed roughly 1,100 IT and networking professionals working for enterprises around the world.

AT&T scores high network marks for 4G LTE, 5G

AT&T delivered speed gains across 51 markets in the early part of 2020, with its wide-scale use of 5-component carrier aggregation and 4x4 MIMO giving it an edge over competition, according to RootMetrics.

DT is one of the backers of new open source community

Deutsche Telekom has teamed up with EWE Tel, Reply and RtBrick to launch a new open source management community called Leitstand. The goal of Leitstand is to develop webscale type tools for telco networks.

AT&T slams FCC’s plans for 6 GHz band

A lot of people praised the FCC for demonstrating its boldness in voting unanimously Thursday to open up the 6 GHz band for unlicensed devices. AT&T’s public policy team was not among them, accusing the agency of putting critical incumbent services at risk.  

Verizon stays on course with DSS, mmWave despite COVID-19

Verizon’s 5G strategy has been laser-focused on using millimeter wave (mmWave) spectrum in dense urban areas to deliver super-fast speeds, although the signals don’t travel far, meaning more cells are needed to densify, adding to the cost.

Verizon loses 68K net subs in Q1

Verizon reported it lost 68,000 postpaid subscribers in the first quarter as the COVID-19 pandemic swept across the country, impacting everything from retail stores to roaming revenues.

Ekinops boosts CM’IN's residential and enterprise broadband

Optical transport vendor Ekinops wrapped up a network upgrade for CM'IN, which is a regional telecom service provider in France. CM'IN's digital infrastructure supports the city of Chartres, France, which is located 90 miles southwest of Paris.

FCC takes up rural 5G fund, but questions linger

The FCC on Thursday voted to move forward a proposal to distribute up to $9 billion for rural 5G rollouts, but concerns remained and the agency is seeking stakeholder input on two options for doling out the funds.

Verizon field techs keep a social distance on Fios installs

Verizon's field technicians are now keeping their distance in regards to new installations of the company's Fios service. In Verizon's Friday morning Q1 earnings call, Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg said his company started work two or three weeks to reduce contact between field technicians and home subscribers in order to keep everyone safe. Those measures include "Fios in a box," which allows customers to self-install their services.

Stephenson out, Stankey in as AT&T CEO

Randall Stephenson, 60, will retire as CEO of AT&T effective July 1, 2020. Chief Operating Officer John Stankey has been elected by the company’s board of directors to replace Stephenson as CEO. Stankey will also join AT&T’s board. Meanwhile, Stephenson will serve as executive chairman of the board of directors until January 2021 to help with the leadership transition.

As yet another exec leaves, Quibi may struggle to stay afloat in a perfect storm

Disruptive mobile video streaming platform Quibi seemed to have everything in place to succeed until the coronavirus pandemic came along.

Israel halts mobile-tracking quarantine measures on privacy grounds

The Israeli Government is suspending police powers to requisition mobile roaming data from telcos to monitor quarantines, with politicians citing privacy concerns.

Fibre deployments heading in the right direction, sales not so much

New data from the FTTH Council Europe points to promising trends for fibre deployment, but a closer look at the figures suggest demand is not quite as high as some would imagine.

FCC unanimously votes to make 6 GHz band available for unlicensed use

The US telecoms regulator didn’t split along partisan lines for once and is giving the country a lot more bandwidth to use for wifi and that sort of thing.

Belgium steams ahead with over 300% increase in full-fiber coverage

FTTH Council Europe and IDATE data ranks the small Benelux state as the fastest-growing market in Europe in terms of homes passed by FTTH/B networks.

Verizon CEO: 'The network is keeping up very well'

Verizon's Vestberg didn't seem enthusiastic about emergency spectrum leases or purchases. Instead, he reiterated the company's 5G buildout strategy and timeline.

ZTE hits buffers as sales and profits slide

Chinese equipment vendor's recovery stalls in the first quarter, but the company's involvement in domestic 5G projects could provide a boost later this year.

Eurobites: Germany at odds with Apple over coronavirus-tracing app

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Tony Blair's think-tank thinks greater digital surveillance is a price worth paying; Proximus boosts upload speeds in Belgium; Ekinops brings 100G to local provider in France.

Mobile network operations in a 5G world

To better understand how mobile operators are addressing the demands of 5G, Heavy Reading conducted a survey that examined three key areas: planning, optimization and operations.

Verizon sheds 84K Fios video subs, adds 59K Fios broadband customers in Q1

Verizon expanding use of new 'Fios in a Box' model to keep new installs afloat without requiring technicians to enter customer homes.

Cable-Tec Expo 2020 still a go

Event team is 'moving ahead to ensure everything is ready' for this year's show, set for October 13-16 in Denver, SCTE/ISBE CEO says.

WiCipedia: The ever-rising glass ceiling

This week in our WiC roundup: The salary gap in tech hasn't left the building; the glass ceiling keeps getting higher; refugees gain machine learning skills in Bulgaria; and more.

Stankey set to take the helm at AT&T as Stephenson steps down

John Stankey will rise to CEO effective July 1 and take over during a turbulent time. Current CEO Randall Stephenson is retiring but will stay on as exec chairman until January 2021.

Limelight sees 'tremendous' interest in edge computing launch

Limelight's CFO said the company's total addressable market in edge computing is likely bigger than its current content delivery network business.

China crosses 100M NB-IoT connections but still short of target

China accounted for more than 90% of global NB-IoT connections at the end of 2019, but it still fell short of its own forecasts.

Verizon: Predicting the cost of COVID-19

Verizon offered some firm numbers detailing how the spread of COVID-19 has affected its business so far, and what it's expecting to happen during the rest of 2020.

Those pestiferous men and their 5G machines

Stay away from 5G masts, inject yourself with Dettol and douse your cornflakes in pure alcohol. The COVID-19 madness spreads.

People inside gives Intel a boost

Lockdown measures have an upside for the US chip giant.

Intel Posts Strong Q1 Earnings, Warns of Q2 Headwinds

COVID-19 dominated Intel CEO Bob Swan’s opening statements during the company’s mostly positive first quarter earnings call.

WiFi 6 Feeds Need for Speed With 5X Spectrum Boost

WiFi got a shot in the arm this week as much of the country becomes increasingly dependent on the technology during a global pandemic that’s forced people to shelter in their homes.

Untangle Rolls Out Predictive Routing to SD-WAN Router

Network security firm Untangle this week announced a series of new features for its SD-WAN router, including the company’s predictive routing technology.

Daily Roundup: AT&T Selects Stankey as New CEO

In case you’ve been stuck in video conference meetings all day, here are today’s top stories from SDxCentral. Also, make sure to subscribe to our daily newsletter to get these stories in your inbox.

Canonical Ubuntu Update Stresses Security

Canonical’s latest Ubuntu update is highly-focused on security, something that was made abundantly clear during a press conference touting the company’s latest “long term support” (LTS) update to its Linux distribution. That focus includes new work on limiting the damage of inevitable security lapses.

Verizon Claims 5G Plans Immune to COVID-19

Verizon is feeling the squeeze from COVID-19, causing the operator to withdraw its revenue outlook for the year, but it maintains that 5G deployments are continuing as planned.

AT&T CEO Shake Up Sees Stephenson Out, Stankey In

AT&T CEO and Chairman Randall Stephenson is ditching that former title at mid-year, handing over the reins of the now multimedia, telecommunications, and entertainment giant to current president and COO John Stankey.

CenturyLink slows OTT and gaming traffic in Europe during COVID

CenturyLink’s Chief Technology Officer Andrew Dugan said that some European regulators asked two groups of internet content providers to slow down their traffic in response to increased network loads stemming from the COVID-19 crisis. The two groups of content providers are over-the-top (OTT) video companies and gaming companies.

Wi-Fi community fetes ‘historic’ FCC decision on 6 GHz

Scores of companies and entities are singing the praises of the FCC’s move Thursday to open up 1,200 megahertz of spectrum in the 6 GHz band for unlicensed use.

Dish adds more credibility to OpenRAN with Mavenir selection

Mavenir has boasted of signing new US entrant Dish as its latest customer, as the emerging telco sets its sights on the most enviable of tasks; a greenfield network deployment.

Twitter tries to stop people calling for damage to 5G infrastructure

In the latest episode of social media censorship whack-a-mole, Twitter is going to remove any tweets that might incite people to do silly things.

DT and Vodafone Germany use DSS for 5G

Two German operators are using dynamic spectrum sharing (DSS) to launch 5G. Deutsche Telekom said it will cover more than half of the German population, or more than 40 million people, with its 5G this year with help from DSS. And Vodafone Germany said it’s using DSS in the 700MHz band to offer 5G and 4G services.

Report: In just 4 months, data center deals outstrip 2019 levels

It has taken all of four months for the value of closed data center deals to eclipse the total for all of 2019, according to Synergy Research Group (SRG.) Data center mergers and acquisitions were spurred by Digital Realty's $8.4 billion deal to buy Interxion, which closed last month, as well as two other billion dollar plus deals that have also closed this year.

FCC votes to make 1,200 MHz at 6 GHz available for unlicensed

Noting the big role Wi-Fi is playing in homes across the country during the COVID-19 pandemic, the FCC voted unanimously today to make 1,200 megahertz of spectrum in the 6 GHz band available for unlicensed use.

Verizon: Network usage settles in during COVID-19 crisis

It seems as though most of the large service providers have weathered the crazy increases in network traffic due to the COVID-19 outbreak over the past month and half. While network traffic is still up over pre-COVID levels, the mad scramble to get millions of users set up to work or study from home may have reached its high water mark across the U.S.

Dish names Mavenir as first vendor for 5G network

Dish Network on Thursday named the first vendor for its planned virtualized 5G network build, selecting Mavenir to supply OpenRAN software for the new nationwide wireless network.

OPNFV hitches its wagon to Common NFVi Telco Taskforce

Birthday plans on are hold for the Common NFVi Telco Taskforce (CNTT) due to the coronavirus shutting down conferences. CNTT got off the ground almost exactly a year ago at the Open Networking Summit conference as a means to align the industry around unified network functions virtualization infrastructure (NFVi) implementations in order to reduce the friction for onboarding virtual network functions (VNFs) and, eventually, container network functions (CNFs.)

Vodafone and TIM both flog a bunch of INWIT shares to pay off debt

Less than a month after completing the merger of their towers businesses, Vodafone and TIM have sold an equal chunk of it each to raise some cash.

Motorola enters premium 5G bracket, but does it have the brand to justify a grand?

Lenovo-owned Motorola has announced the launch of its first 5G phone, coming in towards the top-end of the pricing scale at $999 in North America and €1,199 in Europe.

Tencent profits as gaming surges during COVID-19 pandemic

The gaming industry might face similar production challenges as film and TV, but revenues are surging and few are profiting more than Hong Kong’s Tencent.

Zoom hopes new version will calm security fears

Video conferencing platform Zoom has rushed out a bunch of new security features in response to serious concerns raised following the massive increase in its use.

ATX opens next chapter in its cable network story

After taking over an important piece of Cisco's cable network hardware business, ATX has introduced a new line of outside plant products that takes aim at DOCSIS 4.0 and, eventually, cable's 3GHz future.

Magic Leap cuts staff, jumps away from consumer products

Well-funded augmented reality company reportedly has laid off about 1,000 employees, or about half its workforce, as it manages the financial impact wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The UK's fiber gap is not closing fast enough

The UK's superfast broadband lag could leave it in a nasty situation on the other side of the COVID-19 crisis.

TiVo's latest victory over Comcast at the ITC appears to be a hollow one

Comcast has already expunged a relatively minor text highlighting feature on its X1 platform in the wake of a ruling handed down by an ITC administrative law judge last year.

Xilinx: COVID-19 only disrupting 5G timing, not demand

Despite COVID-19 and the loss of one of its biggest customers, Xilinx's CEO still sees a bright future for its 5G business.

Introducing TikTok, the latest headache for mobile network engineers

Verizon's top networking executive said that TikTok is now the fourth most popular application on the operator's network, in terms of the traffic it generates.

China operators take small virus hit as they rack up big 5G numbers

China telcos report small hits to profit and revenue as they reel from COVID-19, while also racking up nearly 50 million 5G subscribers.

AT&T's Stankey creates another stink as 3K more jobs vanish

Employees at one of the world's biggest operators are in for an especially hard time during COVID-19, but at least the bosses will be fine.

Dish selects its first 5G vendor: Mavenir

Dish Network said it will use open RAN technology from Mavenir to manage its 5G antennas, but the companies did not provide the financial terms of their agreement.

Dish: We're still going to buy Sprint's Boost prepaid biz

Dish Network agreed to purchase Sprint's Boost prepaid business for $1.4 billion under its deal with T-Mobile in 2019. This week the company reiterated its intention to follow through on that transaction.

DSS makes 5G touchdown in Germany

Vodafone and Deutsche Telekom announce bold DSS plans to extend 5G coverage, but the tech still has something to prove when it comes to large-scale deployment.

Podcast: Economics of 5G and NYC's connectivity masterplan

The Light Reading crew debates which industries could experience the biggest economic benefits from 5G deployments, if 5G can be considered a 'green' technology, the connectivity challenges New York City faces in reducing the digital divide, and more.

Euskaltel gears up for national expansion under Virgin brand

The operator in Spain's Basque region plans for the next stage of its growth after reporting a solid Q1.

Eurobites: TIM, Vodafone tackle debt with Inwit stake sale

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: ADVA hit by Wuhan lockdown; Ericsson powers ABB; UK mobile churn down in COVID-19 time; fiber fun in Ukraine.

AT&T Tops Managed SD-WAN Ranking, CenturyLink Surges

AT&T, Hughes, and Verizon topped the Vertical Systems Group’s 2019 ranking of carriers offering managed SD-WAN services. Those three were followed by a surging CenturyLink, Windstream, Aryaka, and Comcast.

Daily Roundup: Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone Embrace 5G DSS

In case you’ve been stuck in video conference meetings all day, here are today’s top stories from SDxCentral. Also, make sure to subscribe to our daily newsletter to get these stories in your inbox.

Will Zero-Trust Security Stick After COVID-19?

It’s strange times when physical health, safety, and one’s children are completely relevant to a conversation about cybersecurity. And yet here we are.

Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone Germany Embrace 5G DSS

Germany’s top mobile operators Deutsche Telekom and Vodafone Germany today shared updates about their respective 5G deployment progress and emphasized the use of dynamic spectrum sharing (DSS) to provide more expansive coverage.

AT&T acknowledges logistical challenges in 5G rollout

AT&T rolled out low-band 5G service in 90 new markets, while its chief executive reiterated committed investment in 5G but acknowledged the carrier’s facing logistical challenges.

Fiber providers see strong demand during COVID-19 pandemic

Companies that deploy fiber broadband networks are seeing increased demand for their services, as stay-at-home orders keep millions of Americans connected to family, work and school via internet. 

What are Shentel’s odds of becoming T-Mobile affiliate?

Shenandoah Telecommunications (Shentel) revealed earlier this month that it was in talks with the newly merged T-Mobile about Shentel’s future, which could mean selling its wireless business to the “un-carrier” or becoming an affiliate of T-Mobile.

AT&T executives measures COVID-19's impact during Q1 earnings

During its Q1 earnings conference call, AT&T executives outlined the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, which included a $600 million decline in revenue. As the first major U.S. service provider to report its earnings, AT&T's results could foreshadow what's to come from additional service provider earnings reports.

US cell site vandalized as Chinese agents accused of sowing panic

US intelligence agencies claim Chinese agents are working to amplify messages that cause panic, while the first report of a cell tower being vandalized has emerged.

TV takes a bite out of AT&T and Telia financials

The content business units of both the US’ AT&T and Nordics telco Telia as spreadsheets were strained during the on-going COVID-19 pandemic.

AT&T ‘not backing off’ $6B cost cutting initiative

Although the full impact of the COVID-19 pandemic won’t show up until next quarter, AT&T’s wireless business showed resilience in the first quarter and the carrier has work underway targeting its distribution strategy to align with both cost-cutting initiatives and new customer behaviors.

More than 230 Charter employees test positive for COVID-19: NYT

As Charter Communications grapples with its work from home policy for its employees, more than 230 have tested positive for COVID-19, according to The New York Times.

Ericsson sees 5G slowing in Europe but offset by China

Ericsson reported today that its first quarter 2020 results saw limited impact from the COVID-19 pandemic. Sales were $4.93 billion, an increase of 2% year-over-year, but sales declined 2% when adjusted for constant currency. Net income was $230 million, a decline of 5% year-over-year.

Cisco: 6 GHz akin to watershed moment for Wi-Fi

Cisco Systems is among a number of big tech companies that are eagerly awaiting the FCC’s vote tomorrow on a proposal to make 1,200 megahertz of spectrum available for unlicensed use in the 6 GHz band.

AT&T and Hughes top Vertical Systems Group's SD-WAN standings

For the second straight year, AT&T, Hughes and Verizon, respectively, held down the top three spots on Vertical Systems Group's Leaderboard. Following those three, in order were, CenturyLink, Windstream, Aryaka and Comcast. Those top-seven service providers each accounted for 2% or more of the installed and billable carrier managed SD-WAN customer sites across the U.S. at the end of last year.

IBM shares coronavirus war stories

IBM is one of the first companies to report in the current earnings season. And the company, as expected, reported unusual happenings related to the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, because of the disruptions caused by the current crisis, the company decided to suspend its guidance for the full year 2020.

UK steps up efforts to tackle smishing

No, that’s not a typo. Smishing refers to phishing over SMS, which is apparently on the increase as SMS fraudsters seek to exploit COVID-19 text alerts.

T-Mobile gets 5G boost thanks to Sprint’s mid-band spectrum

It might only be a baby step when you consider the daunting task of integrating two multi-billion-dollar corporations, but T-Mobile has opened its network up to Sprint customers.

Netflix reports surge in subscriptions and revenues thanks to COVID-19

As expected, Netflix has experienced a material benefit from many societies being placed under lockdown thanks to the on-going coronavirus pandemic.

Ericsson celebrates telecoms industry resilience after a solid Q1

Swedish kit vendor Ericsson delivered Q1 2020 numbers broadly in line with expectations and was cautiously positive about how the telecoms industry is handling the coronavirus crisis.

Facebook buys into Jio’s disruptive mission

Reliance Industries has announced Facebook will invest roughly $5.7 billion for a 9.9% stake in its telecoms and tech business unit.

Verizon opens up about BlueJeans acquisition

Tami Erwin, CEO of Verizon Business and the executive who oversaw the transaction, and BlueJeans CEO Quentin Gallivan discussed how Verizon will move forward with its purchase of the videoconferencing provider.

IBM, Fortanix Double Down on Confidential Computing

IBM doubled down on confidential computing with Fortanix and said its Fortanix-powered IBM Cloud Data Shield now supports containerized applications IBM Cloud Kubernetes and RedHat OpenShift. This allows businesses to move and secure applications in the public cloud by running them in a secure enclave on Intel Software Guard Extension (SGX) hardware.

Daily Roundup: IBM Container Apps Hide Behind Fortanix

In case you’ve been stuck in video conference meetings all day, here are today’s top stories from SDxCentral. Also, make sure to subscribe to our daily newsletter to get these stories in your inbox.

AT&T Boasts Confidence Amid Chaos

AT&T’s financial performance and outlook took a hit during the final weeks of the first quarter due to the coronavirus pandemic, but executives are confident the company will emerge in a stronger position once the economy recovers. 

Ericsson Weathers Pandemic With ‘Limited Impact’

Ericsson said it encountered “very limited impact from COVID-19” during the first quarter of 2020, but warned that the current quarter is “likely to be a tad softer than normal” due to uncertainty induced by the pandemic.

NetApp Introduces Project Astra for Kubernetes Portability

NetApp is on a mission to support all clouds with Project Astra, an enterprise-class storage and data services platform for Kubernetes that enables both application and data portability.

Ciena Catapults Blue Planet Into ONAP’s Orbit

Ciena announced today it would contribute functionality from its Blue Planet division to the Open Networking Automation Platform (ONAP) Policy Framework.

Aqua Attacks Container Image-Based Malware in Sandbox

Aqua Security today added container threat analysis to its Cloud Native Security Platform and Cloud Security Posture Management products.

Google Anthos Update Aims at AWS, Puts Azure in Crosshairs

Google is finally expanding the reach of its Anthos hybrid-cloud platform into competing clouds with an initial multi-cloud push into Amazon Web Services (AWS) and plans to tap into Microsoft Azure.

Arista Bakes AI Into WiFi Software

Arista Networks today announced a series of new capabilities for WiFi management fueled by artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. The Cognitive WiFi software provides visibility into WiFi users’ experience and initiates root cause analysis to make recommendations for resolution on a per client or group of clients basis.

Ericsson, Nokia help U.S. Cellular add capacity at 450 sites

Ericsson and Nokia are each helping U.S. Cellular boost capacity at hundreds of cell sites with additional AWS-3 spectrum that the operator has temporary access to during the coronavirus crisis.

Qualcomm plants stake in 6 GHz ground

Qualcomm is a well-known pioneer in the cellular space. It championed CDMA – an alternative to GSM, proving naysayers wrong. Today, it's a leader in 5G, contributing to the 3GPP standards process and boasting its third-generation 5G modem-RF system.

Lowenstein: 5 longer-term effects of coronavirus on telecom

We are still in the midst of a pandemic that will forever change the world as we’ve known it. There are certain sectors of the economy that will never fully come back to what they were. And there will be aspects of daily life that will be altered in a way similar to what happened after 9/11.

5G conspiracy theories; what they are, why they are wrong and what can be done

While the majority of the general public might be immune to the absurdity of conspiracy theories linking 5G to COVID-19, there are enough believers to burn down infrastructure.

Huawei touts ‘resilient performance,’ Q1 revenue growth shrinks

Huawei in the first quarter grew revenue 1.4% year over year, a stark slowdown from the 39% spike it reported in the first quarter of 2019, as the Chinese tech giant faced challenges from the global coronavirus pandemic along with continued U.S. restrictions.  

PacketFabric names former Cisco executive Ward as its new CEO

PacketFabric has reeled in former Cisco executive Dave Ward as its new CEO. Ward previously served a stint as the chief technology officer of engineering at Cisco.

Federated Wireless snags $13.7M to accelerate private wireless

Federated Wireless today announced it secured $13.7 million in additional Series C funding from existing investors Allied Minds and Pennant Investors. According to Crunchbase, the added funding brings its total funds raised to more than $130 million.

Juniper Networks powers T-Systems' managed SD-WAN platform

Juniper Networks is providing a range of hardware and software solutions to power T-Systems' managed SD-WAN platform for its enterprise customers. T-Systems turned to Juniper Networks to create a managed SD-WAN infrastructure as part of an end-to-end overlay for its enterprise customers.

T-Mobile launches 2.5 GHz in Philadelphia

Citing the “furious pace” at which it’s advancing 5G, T-Mobile US today announced that it’s already lighting up 2.5 GHz spectrum in parts of Philadelphia, where it’s reporting peak speeds of 600 Mbps.

Cisco and Google partner on cloud networking fabric for SD-WAN

In order to truly integrate SD-WAN applications into multi-cloud environments, Cisco and Google announced on Tuesday they've partnered on a new platform. Cisco and Google, who first announced they were partnering last year, have created Cisco SD-WAN Cloud Hub with Google Cloud to extend applications into multi-cloud environments while also providing improved security, orchestration and service level agreements  (SLAs.)

Ofcom tells off ITV and ESTV over 5G conspiracy theory coverage

Ofcom has concluded its investigations into ITV and ESTV, after both TV stations were seemingly fanning the flames of the conspiracy theories which have linked 5G to the coronavirus outbreak.

The IoT industry is broken, but can it be fixed?

A new book co-authored by wireless expert Dr William Webb takes a look at what went wrong with the Internet of Things.

France does exactly what it was told not to with COVID-19 app

Much has been said about using technology to combat the coronavirus outbreak, but France has done exactly what many critics feared by cutting corners to compromise security and privacy.

Huawei insists everything’s fine after revenue growth slows dramatically

Chinese telecoms vendor Huawei just about managed to grow its revenues in Q1 2020 in the face of mounting challenges.

Pulumi Supercharges Its Code Bridge

Pulumi released version 2.0 of its open source code platform for automating the provisioning of IT infrastructure in the cloud. It includes updates to testing and infrastructure provisioning capabilities that its CEO Joe Duffy said users are calling “superpowers.”

T-Systems Taps Juniper for Managed SD-WAN

Germany’s T-Systems selected Juniper Networks’ SD-WAN platform to power its latest managed service offering, which it’s calling Smart SD-WAN.

Daily Roundup: Cisco, Google SD-WAN Soars

In case you’ve been stuck in video conference meetings all day, here are today’s top stories from SDxCentral. Also, make sure to subscribe to our daily newsletter to get these stories in your inbox.

SAP Axes 2-Headed CEO Structure

SAP eliminated its dual-leadership structure with long-time executive and short-time co-CEO Jennifer Morgan set to leave the company on April 30. The move will remove the “co” from Christian Klein’s previous title, leaving him as SAP’s lone leader.

IBM Capped by COVID-19 Pandemic, Red Hat Helps

IBM’s acquisition of Red Hat continues to pay operational dividends for Big Blue, though it might not be enough to stave off a dramatic drop in overall business tied to the COVID-19 pandemic. That drop has led IBM to follow a number of other vendors in suspending its operational guidance for the rest of the year.

Equinix Inks Second $1B Hyperscale Data Center Deal

Equinix inked a second $1 billion-plus deal with GIC, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, to develop and operate hyperscale data centers in Japan.

Huawei’s Growth Craters as Pandemic Takes Toll

Huawei’s surging growth in revenue cratered during the first quarter, posing a potential harbinger of things to come for other networking vendors. The Chinese juggernaut reported a 1.4% year-over-year increase in revenue during Q1 totaling almost $25.8 billion.

Commvault Sues Cohesity, Rubrik for Patent Infringement

Commvault signed, sealed, and delivered paperwork to the Delaware District Court today against competitors Cohesity and Rubrik, alleging that the Silicon Valley-based startups infringed on seven of Commvault’s patents relating to cloud, data deduplication, snapshots, search, security, and virtualization.

Dell Combats COVID-19 With $9B Financing

Dell Technologies today announced $9 billion in special financing in a bid to jumpstart IT investment in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has already paralyzed world economies.

Aviatrix Adds Multi-Cloud CoPilot for Network Visibility

Aviatrix today rolled out CoPilot, a multi-cloud visibility and troubleshooting tool, that runs on top of its cloud networking platform.

Cisco, Google Drive SD-WAN to the Cloud

Cisco and Google are teaming up to develop an application-centric, multi-cloud network fabric, which the companies say will allow customers to extend SD-WAN orchestration and management to the cloud.

SRG detects interoperability issues using T-Mobile service

Signals Research Group (SRG) set out to conduct a benchmark study of T-Mobile’s 5G New Radio (NR) network in and around the Minneapolis-St. Paul market and uncovered some problematic interoperability issues along the way.

T-Mobile leases 600 MHz spectrum from Columbia Capital

The COVID-19 crisis propelled the big three wireless carriers to borrow spectrum for 60 days to increase their capacity. But now, T-Mobile has entered into a three-year arrangement with LB License Co. — a company controlled by the venture capital firm Columbia Capital — for a 600 MHz paid leasing arrangement.

Alibaba to spend $28 billion in bid for cloud autonomy

Chinese internet giant Alibaba has announced it plans to invest $28 billion over the next three years in its cloud business, including the development of chips and an OS.

GCI turns on Alaska's first 5G service

GCI has made good on its pledge to launch 5G service in Alaska this spring, turning on its first 5G cell sites in Anchorage Friday.

Industry Voices — Moore: Fixed wireless gets real

Wave7 Research has been highly skeptical about 5G, which we consider to be overhyped. Fixed wireless for home and business broadband is a completely different matter, and we have initiated coverage of the sector. 

FCC OKs Ligado’s L-Band plan amid DoD opposition

Despite major pushback from the Department of Defense (DoD), the FCC today announced that it unanimously approved, with conditions, Ligado’s application to deploy a low-power terrestrial nationwide network in the L-Band to support 5G and IoT services.

Raynovich: How service providers can avoid bungling the edge

Just mention 5G in the communications industry and you are going to get some kind of reaction. Usually these reactions alternate from wild-eyed speculative visions to bitter skeptical rants. But one thing is certain: Service providers need to get their 5G cloud edge strategy right, whatever shape and size it comes in. 

UK Gov carves out £1bn to save struggling firms

The UK Treasury has announced a new scheme which will see as much as $1 billion made available to UK SMEs who are struggling financially during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Alibaba Cloud to invest $28B to keep up with impact of COVID-19

With more usage due to the coronavirus pandemic, Alibaba Cloud announced its investing $28 billion in its infrastructure. Alibaba Cloud will spend that capex over the next three years as it builds out new data centers and develops new technologies related to operating systems, servers and chips.

Altice Europe takes wraps off of new fiber unit in Portugal

Altice Europe announced the launch of its new wholesale fiber division, Fastfiber, which is partially owned by Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners.

Ericsson, Oppo team on successful 5G VoNR call

Ericsson, in partnership with Oppo and MediaTek, performed successful 5G voice and video over New Radio calls in Sweden, a basic capability needed for future standalone NR (SA NR) 5G deployments.

Verizon and others tee up employer-to-employer platform

With massive layoffs and furloughs around the globe due to the COVID-19 crisis, four companies have banded together to create a new platform to help people find new jobs at a faster rate.

MWC Shanghai 2020 has been cancelled

The GSMA has surprised nobody by announcing the cancellation of the Chinese version of its Mobile World Congress trade show.

Orange cuts dividend in response to COVID-19

While it has been described as a more palatable ‘adaption’, investors will have to be satisfied with a dividend payment which is 29% lower from French operator group Orange.

Facebook launches gaming app to take on Twitch

Facebook has launched its own gaming app to tap into the fortunes currently being claimed by the likes of Amazon’s Twitch, Microsoft’s Mixer and Google’s YouTube.

Ofcom fails to clear up the myths around 5G and the coronavirus

UK telecoms regulator Ofcom has published an announcement that claims to rebut the conspiracy theories regarding 5G and coronavirus, but barely mentions them.

Australia takes on Silicon Valley to redistribute the wealth from news stories

The Australian Government has promised by July a mandatory code to force Silicon Valley to pay Australian media organisations for content used on their platforms.

Libra Association distances itself from global digital currency

The Libra Association has entered into the first phase of the payment system licensing process, but its global plans have been replaced with several, localised stablecoins.

Alibaba Injects $28B Into Cloud

Alibaba Group is reportedly investing $28 billion into its cloud platform over the next three years in an attempt to bolster support for services that have surged in light of the COVID-19 virus outbreak.

Daily Roundup: Google Rolls Out Enterprise BeyondCorp

In case you’ve been stuck in video conference meetings all day, here are today’s top stories from SDxCentral. Also, make sure to subscribe to our daily newsletter to get these stories in your inbox.

Will COVID-19 Kill the Data Center?

COVID-19 may kill the data center, or at the very least forever change storage as we know it,  says Andres Rodriguez, CTO and co-founder of  Nasuni, a cloud file services company. Rodriguez and his team created the a file system for the cloud to enable organizations to replace on-premises network-attached storage for a more scalable and collaborative global file store.

Rackspace Readies $10B IPO, Report Says

Rackspace has reportedly filed for an initial public offering (IPO) that could value the managed cloud services company at more than $10 billion, according to Reuters.

Google Brings BeyondCorp Zero-Trust Security to the Masses

Google today made available BeyondCorp Remote Access, marking the first commercial product based on the zero-trust approach to network security that Google pioneered and has used internally for almost a decade. The cloud-based service lets employees access internal web apps from most devices, and from any location, without a traditional remote-access virtual private network (VPN).

Ericsson 5G Gear Powers Alaska’s GCI Network

Alaska’s most populated city is now home to the northernmost 5G service in America. Ericsson and regional carrier GCI first announced plans last June to deploy 5G in Anchorage and beat their goal by a couple months.