Friday, July 31, 2020

Nokia’s outgoing CEO marks surprise Q2 profit

Nokia President and CEO Rajeev Suri delivered his last quarterly earnings report Friday, saying the company achieved an unexpected improvement in profitability despite challenges related to COVID-19. Nokia’s net profit for the April-June period was up 22%, at $376 million.  

Altice USA adds 70,400 broadband subs in Q2 2020

Altice USA reported that total unique residential customer relationships grew +1.8% year over year during its second quarter 2020. That number drops to growth of 1.4% when adjusted to exclude customers greater than 90 days delinquent due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Thursday, July 30, 2020

Daily Roundup: VMware Scores Dish 5G Win

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.

Nvidia Readies $32B Arm Acquisition, Report Says

Will Nvidia buy Arm? According to a Bloomberg report, the United States’ largest chipmaker is not only interested, it has entered into “advanced talks” to take the British chip designer off Japanese conglomerate SoftBank’s hands for more than $32 billion.

Amazon Still Dominates Cloud, But AWS Growth Slows

Amazon still dominates the cloud with 33% market share during the second quarter, but the overall growth of its Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud business slowed slightly during the quarter. AWS revenue hit $10.8 billion in Q2, which was up 29% year over year but down slightly from the 33% growth it reported in Q1.

VMware Scores Dish 5G Telco Cloud Deal

VMware scored a significant 5G win with Dish Network selecting the vendor to provide the underlying cloud platform and infrastructure to power its open radio access network-based 5G network.

Nokia Hit by COVID-19, China, Eeks Out Profit

Nokia posted schizophrenic second-quarter financial results that only continue what has been a rollercoaster-like year for the Nordic vendor. Nokia’s latest quarter included plunging revenues, a surprise profit, and plenty of drama around its 5G portfolio and COVID-19.

Dish chooses VMware's cloud for 5G

Dish Network said it will run its network functions inside of the VMware Telco Cloud, and that the companies will work together to certify and install other vendors' software into the platform.

Toward cloud-native 5G core

5G core must be part of a wider industry transition to 5G networks that incorporates massive investment in RAN, transport and cloud infrastructure.

Comcast adds 323,000 internet customers in Q2 2020

Comcast Cable added 323,000 high-speed internet customers in its second quarter 2020, resulting in its best second quarter in 13 years. That number does not even include over 600,000 additional high-risk or free internet essentials customers that are receiving Comcast’s internet service as part of its Covid-19 Keep Americans Connected pledge. “We'll only count these customers once they are in paid status,” said Dave Watson, President and CEO of Comcast Cable, on today’s earnings call.

U.S. Cellular expands 5G to 11 more states on 600 MHz spectrum

U.S. Cellular, the nation’s fourth largest infrastructure-based wireless carrier, is moving beyond its initial two 5G markets in Iowa and Wisconsin and is beginning to deploy 5G in 11 more states. Michael Irizarry, executive vice president and CTO of U.S. Cellular, said the company is deploying 5G by using an approach that targets “clusters” where there are large numbers of existing customers that are likely to use the upgraded technology.

Verizon gets praise from NYC’s former top cop

The battle for public safety clientele is as hot as ever as the nation reels from the COVID-19 health crisis and protests fighting for racial equality in cities across the country. One of the voices in that mix is William Bratton, who serves as chairman of the Verizon First Responder Advisory Council (VFRAC). 

Nokia fetes 5G SA call with China Unicom

Nokia is touting the successful completion of its first 5G standalone (SA) call on a live network with China Unicom—and it expects to achieve full deployment of numerous software solutions with the operator several weeks ahead of schedule.

Verizon surprises with fixed wireless access on 4G for rural

In a surprise move, Verizon today unveiled a new fixed wireless access (FWA) home internet service built on its 4G LTE network. The company has been touting its 5G Home service for a while, but apparently the high demand for home internet, spurred by Covid-19, also spurred Verizon to quickly deploy FWA on its LTE network.

Altice USA sells 49.9% stake of Lightpath for about $3.2 billion

After shopping it around more than a year, Altice USA has found a partner for its Lightpath fiber business that serves the New York metro area. In a deal with an implied enterprise value of $3.2, Altice reached an agreement with Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners (MSIP) for the sale of a 49.99% stake in Lightpath.

Wednesday, July 29, 2020

Daily Roundup: Cisco Trails Switch Leaders

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.

Aryaka SASE Play Champions Choice

It seems like every SD-WAN and managed security vendor out there is scrambling to bring a secure access service edge (SASE) platform to market, and Aryaka is no different. But while many vendors have focused on building out a comprehensive SASE stack, the self-proclaimed “cloud-first” SD-WAN vendor instead aims to expand its addressable market by giving customers choice.

Arista, Juniper, Nvidia Switch Vendor ‘Leaders,’ Says Forrester

Arista Networks, Huawei, Juniper Networks, and Nvidia stood tall as “leaders” in Forrester Research’s latest Wave ranking of programmable switch vendors. That quartet led a group that included well-heeled rivals such as Cisco, Extreme Network, and Dell EMC among the dozen of vendors included in the report.

Will Tech Pay More Than Lip Service to Diversity?

Big technology companies (along with most major brands) spent a lot of time this summer talking about diversity in their organizations. The shortage of women and people of color in the industry has been well documented — and a hot trade show topic in recent years. But the COVID-19 pandemic, with its opportunity to “reimagine” what the sector will and should look like, coupled with massive protests triggered by police killing black people, seemed to spur companies into real action.

Juniper Networks drives AI into SD-WAN with Mist

Juniper Networks has driven the reach of its Mist artificial intelligence networking capabilities into the WAN for better insights and automation. After buying wireless LAN vendor Mist early last year, Juniper has been integrating Mist's AI capabilities across its LAN, WLAN and now WAN products and services to improve end-to-end optimization.

Tuesday, July 28, 2020

Marvell Switch Silicon Emphasizes Edge

Marvell refreshed its enterprise switch silicon portfolio today with new Prestera switch and Alaska physical layer (PHY) chips. These chips are designed to scale from 1 Gb/s to 400 Gb/s to suit enterprise bandwidth demands from small business to large enterprise deployments.

Daily Roundup: Juniper Takes On Cisco

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.

Juniper's Mixed Q2 Earnings Show Signs of Recovery

Juniper Networks continued its financial recovery during the second-quarter of 2020, despite COVID-19-related supply chain shortages and economic pressures affecting customer plans. While revenues were down 1% year over year, the company’s revenues were up 9% sequentially.

Podcast: What's the story with cablecos?

On this episode of 'What's the Story?' – a new series from the Light Reading Podcast – Alan Breznick talks with pod host Nicole Ferraro about cable companies' moves into wireless: the latest news, why it matters and what's likely to happen next.

Juniper Takes On Cisco, Aruba With AI, WAN Two Punch

Juniper Mist extended its artificial intelligence-driven networking capabilities to the WAN today alongside the company’s virtual assistant Marvis. The introduction of SD-WAN functionality now positions Mist to compete directly against Cisco’s Meraki and Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s Aruba platform.

Entner: Attempts to close the Digital Divide count wins, losses

Over the past 15 years, there have been several government initiatives to expand the adoption of broadband in the United States. At the same time, industry has been busily focused on extending the reach and capacity of both fixed and mobile broadband networks. Yet, a digital divide still exists. Why? Let’s review the history here. 

CBRS put to the test by Utah school district

Salt Lake City’s Murray City School District wants to be the first district in the country to implement a private CBRS network for students in grades K-12. Private LTE in publicly available spectrum could be the key to bridging the digital divide for some students who lack internet access at home.

Google Cloud chalks up a customer win with France's Orange

Google Cloud has struck up a strategic partnership with Orange to help the telco build its IT infrastructure, edge compute and cloud services. Orange is looking to tap into Google Cloud's artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) capabilities to speed up its digital transformation across its European footprint.

CenturyLink reels in contract with state of Arizona

CenturyLink locked up a multi-year contract with the state of Arizona to provide network connectivity and managed IT services across all state government agencies. Under the new "AZNet" contract, CenturyLink will also provide local and wide area network management, Wi-Fi, security, unified voice communications, data center and cloud services.

Monday, July 27, 2020

Daily Roundup: Intel Shakes Up Exec Team

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.

Verizon Snares Ericsson’s First US-Made 5G Gear

Ericsson delivered its first U.S.-made commercial 5G base station product to a customer. That delivery came nearly two years after Ericsson began its journey toward making products for its North American customers in North America.

Nokia, Ericsson Score U.S. Cellular 5G mmWave Deals

U.S. Cellular expanded 5G network equipment deals with Ericsson and Nokia to now include millimeter wave (mmWave) gear and support for the regional carrier’s IoT and use of the 3.5 GHz Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) band. The expansion comes as a new report from Gartner predicts 5G network spending will double this year.

Intel Shakes Up Exec Team After 7NM Setback

Intel’s lead engineer Venkata Renduchintala is leaving the company after CEO Bob Swan announced sweeping changes to its leadership team Tuesday. The news comes less than a week after Intel revealed its next-generation 7-nanometer chips were behind schedule as a result of a flaw in the manufacturing process. The revelation sent Intel’s stock price tumbling nearly 16% following the announcement.

Backblaze Scorches AWS With S3-Compatible APIs

Backblaze is taking its fight with the big three cloud storage vendors — Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Storage (GCS) — to the streets with the general availability of its S3-compatible APIs for its B2 Cloud Storage (B2). 

U.S. Cellular begins deploying mmWave with Ericsson and Nokia

The Chicago-based carrier provides 4.9 million connections in 20 states. Its 5G deployments to date have only been on 600 MHz spectrum in parts of Iowa and Wisconsin. In late 2019, U.S. Cellular selected Ericsson as a network equipment vendor for 5G New Radio (NR) hardware and software in Iowa and Wisconsin.

Walker: Jio and Rakuten have 5G ambitions, but one has an edge

The $214 billion market for telecommunications network infrastructure (telco NI) may have a couple of more suppliers soon, if claims from Mumbai and Tokyo are to be believed. Reliance Jio (now Jio Platforms) and the Rakuten Group, both telcos, have each signaled recently their interest in becoming vendors of mobile NI to telcos abroad.

Marek’s Take: Wireless industry might just be pandemic-proof

Every day we hear in the news about industries (retail, restaurant, fitness) that may never recover to their pre-pandemic status. But the wireless industry doesn’t appear to be one of them. As the second quarter 2020 earnings season ramps up, it’s becoming increasingly clear that for the most part the wireless industry is resilient to the pandemic.     

Sunday, July 26, 2020

Daily Roundup: SAP Rides Cloud in Q2

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.

Riverbed Punches Office 365 Accelerator

Riverbed expanded its application acceleration capabilities today with two cloud-based offerings designed to enhance Office 365 and software-as-a-service (SaaS) application performance. The company claims these services help enterprises achieve 10 times higher performance in Office 365.

SAP Rides Cloud in Q2, Plans Qualtrics IPO

SAP’s increased focus on cloud operations allowed it to again soar above the COVID-19 uncertainty during its second fiscal quarter of 2020. The vendor also said it will float a portion of its Qualtrics customer experience business to further heighten its bottom line.

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