AT&T Avoided COVID-19 Crush With Virtualization

AT&T avoided more vexing challenges this year as traffic shifted and spiked during the global pandemic due in large part to its ongoing effort to virtualize its network, according to one of the operator’s network leaders.

T-Mobile launches LBR, NG911 for better 911 response times

T-Mobile announced that it’s the first U.S. wireless operator to launch Location-Based Routing (LBR) and Next Generation 911 (NG911) capabilities, thereby speeding responses to 911 calls.

Verizon turns up private LTE platform for enterprise

Verizon is making moves on private wireless, debuting an LTE-based network platform for enterprise customers in the U.S.

AT&T teams with Purdue on 5G R&D lab

AT&T has teamed with Purdue College of Engineering to create a 5G research and development testbed. The lab opened Thursday with a virtual event and its first 5G demonstration.

Qualcomm powers FastWeb’s 5G fixed wireless CPE in Italy

Italian telecom operator FastWeb is geared up to commercially launch its 5G fixed wireless access service in 50 cities in Italy by year’s end, with customer premises equipment using Qualcomm’s X55 platform.

Editor's Corner—Danielle Royston is winning the prediction race

This time of the year always leads to a massive influx of predictions for the following year in ye olde email inbox, but Danielle Royston is the frontrunner so far.

Charter doubles up internet starting speed to 200 Mbps

After posting robust broadband subscriber adds this year, Charter isn't giving its competitors much breathing room.

Russia implicated in massive cyber-attacks on American government agencies

Russia is suspected to be behind a sustained cyber campaign against multiple U.S. government agencies by compromising a piece of software from SolarWinds.

Ericsson bags 5G SA deal with Singtel

Singapore is closer to getting proper, next stage 5G services after Singtel picked Ericsson for its standalone 5G deployment.

Samsung and IBM team up to tap private 5G opportunities

The two tech giants are collaborating to develop new edge computing, cloud, and private 5G solutions targeted at the enterprise market.

Openreach to hire 5,300 engineers, roll out EV fleet

BT’s infrastructure unit Openreach will recruit thousands of engineers next year as it ramps up its full fibre rollout.

Enel OKs €2.7bn Open Fiber sale to Macquarie

Italy has taken another step towards realising its dream of having a single, nationwide fibre network.

EU gives go-ahead to Google’s Fitbit deal, with strings attached

The European Commission has approved Google’s plan to acquire Fitbit after deeming the search giant’s commitments have satisfied competition and consumer protection requirements.

US smacks SMIC and keeps the heat on Huawei

The latest addition to the Commerce Department's Entity List is the same firm that Huawei was looking to turn to after it lost a key smartphone components supplier earlier this year.

Microsoft Reportedly Developing Custom Silicon for Azure

In what can only be described as a warning to Intel, Microsoft is developing its own silicon for use in its cloud data centers and consumer focused Surface products, according to a Bloomberg report.

Google Gifts CNCF $3M Holiday Bonus

Google forked over a $3 million holiday present to the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) that builds on a past commitment and could further smooth over what has been a tense year between the two organizations.

Italy's TIM slapped with fine over universal service failure

Penalty levied by the regulator shows that every second counts when it comes to fulfilling universal service obligations.

Italy closer to having national broadband operator

Enel agreed to sell Macquarie a 40% to 50% stake in Open Fiber, getting Italy closer to mashing together a single national fast broadband operator.

Daily Roundup: Trump Cuts Off China’s Top Chipmaker

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C-band on track to be America's biggest spectrum auction ever

The fact that bidders have so far put up $25 billion in total bids appears to reflect a widespread belief that 5G will ultimately be worth it.

Sweden's 5G auction back on

Auction of 3.5GHz and 2.3GHz frequencies to start on January 19 after court of appeal overrules injunction granted to Huawei.

Trump Cuts Off China's Top Chipmaker

In the final throws of its presidency, the Trump Administration isn’t backing down on its tech war with China. The Wall Street Journal reported today that the U.S. Commerce Department banned the export of U.S. intellectual property related to semiconductor manufacturing over Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp’s (SMIC) alleged ties to the Chinese military.

WiCipedia: Are ethics in AI a losing game?

This week in our WiC roundup: The future of ethics in AI; why minorities don't want to stay in tech; pandemic's effects on women at work; and more.

Pentagon puts 5G at center of US military's communications future

The US military is working to build its own IoT platform to 'increase lethality.' According to a wide range of top Pentagon officials, 5G is at the center of the effort.

HPE Wins HCI Upset, But Dell Remains King

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) pulled a hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) upset and beat out Nutanix for the No. 2 spot in IDC’s quarterly market tracker for branded HCI systems. Dell Technologies, per usual, won the No. 1 spot in the quarterly ranking. However, for the second consecutive quarter both Dell’s and Nutanix’s revenues declined during the third quarter of 2020, while HPE’s grew twenty-five times faster than the overall market with 16.3% year-over-year revenue growth.

Windstream steps to SASE by integrating SRA with its WE portal

Windstream Enterprise has integrated its secure remote access (SRA) user capabilities into its WE Connect portal as part of its move to a SASE offering.

Irony Alert: What if China taps open RAN to breach networks?

The presence of Chinese companies in open-source radio access network (RAN) groups, such as the O-RAN Alliance, could pose a security threat to networks, says telecom consultant John Strand.

Lumen tees-up private cloud, multi-tenant services at the edge

After rolling out bare metal services on its edge compute nodes, Lumen is teeing up private cloud and multi-tenant solutions for launch in Q1.

Verizon expands nationwide 5G to 230M people

Verizon announced today that an additional 24 million customers now have access to its nationwide 5G network, which it launched back in October using dynamic spectrum sharing (DSS) technology.

Nokia names former Ericsson exec as new CTO

Nokia on Thursday named Nishant Batra as the Finnish telecom equipment vendor’s new technology and strategy chief.

ServiceNow integrates with EXFO for network visibility

ServiceNow and EXFO team up on a combined solution that offers service providers end-to-end visibility into their networks while also automating service assurance.

Germany all but says “Nein!” to Huawei

New IT security law proposed by Angela Merkel’s cabinet gives the country’s security authority more power to exclude suppliers it deems posing threat to Germany’s critical information systems.

AWS corrals an agreement with T-Systems for cloud migrations

T-Systems has expanded its collaboration with Deutsche Telekom's T-Systems to accelerate cloud migrations for T-Systems' customers.

TalkTalk in £1.1 billion private takeover, Dunstone stays

TalkTalk has agreed to a £1.1 billion takeover bid from a pair of investment firms that will see it delisted from the stock exchange.

Three UK reports 50 percent surge in mobile data usage

UK MNO Three said on Thursday that data traffic on its network has risen by 50 percent this year, with average monthly data usage per customer topping 15 GB for the first time in October.

Nokia talks new strategy, round two

The Finnish telecoms vendor has provided more details about its new strategy and operating mode, which were first unveiled in October.

Standalone 5G core security: Standards multiplicity and key management singularity

SPONSORED: Heavy Reading's research confirms that effective 5G security strategies will encompass multiple standards and single key management.

Comcast lights up 'Stream' app for Amazon Fire TV devices

Cable operator's pay-TV app hits another major streaming platform, building on tie-ins with Roku, Samsung, LG Electronics and Google's Chromecast adapters.

Cisco broadband CTO broadens his scope

John Chapman's focus has extended to PON, 5G and fixed wireless, but he'll 'always be a cable guy at heart.'

Microsoft CAPZ Drives More Kubernetes Control

Microsoft launched a more complete Kubernetes tool to manage clusters on its Azure infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) that its open source team recommends as a replacement for the existing AKS Engine offering. The Cluster API Provider for Azure (CAPZ) also takes a step back from what has been a more abstracted view for managing container clusters on public cloud infrastructure.

Rancher Labs Harvests ‘No Knowledge Required’ Kubernetes HCI

The open source cowboys at Rancher Labs launched a new project called Harvester, an open source hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) software built using Kubernetes. 

Is Nokia Heading For a Split?

When Nokia’s three-year turnaround plan formally kicks off in two weeks, every area of its business will be under heightened pressure to grow and prove technology leadership in their respective segments.

Cisco Cuts 3,500 Jobs Since Start of COVID-19

Cisco confirmed to at least two news outlets that it laid off about 3,500 employees since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic despite CEO Chuck Robbins’ pledge in April to not cut any jobs because of the pandemic.

Daily Roundup: IBM Rolls Out Next-Gen Encryption

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Really Fast Optical Tech Shipments To Triple in 2021, Dell'Oro Predicts

A new wave of high-speed coherent optical capable are expected gain widespread adoption in 2021, according to Dell’Oro analyst Jimmy Yu.

Telia Carrier leans on pluggable optics for a simpler network

The wholesale carrier said it will use routing platforms that support 400G pluggable optics to build a faster, more manageable network.

Some X1 devices aren't compatible with CBS All Access and HBO Max

Certain older X1 models currently don't work with recently integrated streaming apps such as CBS All Access and HBO Max, but Comcast is giving subs a quick, no-cost upgrade path as it works to bridge the gap.

Mirantis, Platform9 Tackle On-Prem Silos

Whether enterprises are orchestrating workloads in on-premises data centers or servers in edge locations, the full potential of running containers in the cloud remains to be seen as bare metal management is manual, slow, siloed, and expensive. But, in the final weeks of a very long march, Mirantis and Platform9 have given enterprises something to smile about, as each of the vendors released their own versions of fully-managed, bare metal orchestration platforms. 

TalkTalk to be taken private for $1.5B

Head honchos at UK broadband provider agree non-binding deal with Toscafund Asset Management, Penta Capital that will see it delist from the London Stock Exchange.

India to hold 4G spectrum auction in March 2021

Authorities are selling a huge amount of spectrum for the first time since market consolidation left India with just three big players.

Texas v Google: Ten states sue Google for antitrust

Ten US states have sued Google for unlawful efforts to quash competition in ad auctions, including a secret agreement with Facebook.

China targeting US users through mobile network security flaws

China is taking advantage of vulnerabilities in 3G and 4G networks to track US mobile users, according to research.

China's role in open RAN is a looming problem

The involvement of so many Chinese firms in the O-RAN Alliance raises some awkward questions for policymakers.

Verizon Business mixes Silver Peak into SD-WAN flavor profile

Silver Peak has a number of other features that Verizon hopes will appeal to customers including improved management and access to cloud applications.

Eurobites: Nokia appoints new head of strategy

Also in today's epoch-closing EMEA regional roundup: Swisscom's fiber rollout under investigation; ADVA plays a part in German open RAN trial; Prysmian touts teeny-weeny fiber.

Linux Foundation’s DENT Switch OS Gets Galactic Debut

The Linux Foundation’s disaggregated enterprise edge and campus switching platform, DENT, is now available.

Germany sets high barriers for Huawei with new security bill

After years of wrangling, ministers agree on a bill that will not ban specific vendors but will make it much harder for them to meet security standards.

IBM Rolls Out Next-Gen Encryption for Hybrid Cloud Security

IBM Security’s new service allows customers to try out fully homomorphic encryption (FHE), an emerging technology that the vendor says will improve hybrid cloud security as customers move data to the cloud or between multiple clouds and on-premises locations.

Nokia CEO comments on Verizon relationship

It’s been widely assumed that Nokia lost a $6.6 billion 5G contract with Verizon this fall, when the U.S. carrier instead chose Samsung. Nokia’s CEO Pekka Lundmark addressed the Verizon relationship today when we was giving a Nokia investor relations update.

Verizon’s 5G fixed wireless in the cards for some Walgreens

Verizon on Wednesday announced a major Network as a Service (NaaS) agreement for integrated network services at more than 9,000 Walgreens and Duane Reed-branded retail stores across the country.

Bidding rounds reveal clues in C-band auction: Kellogg

A week into the C-band auction, bidding is off to a strong start, reaching more than $10.5 billion. With 5G deployments in full-swing, the 280 MHz of mid-band licenses being offered sit directly in the “goldilocks zone” that straddles attractive propagation characteristics and reasonably sized 20 MHz licenses large enough for a meaningful difference in capacity and speed for 5G, especially if a winner gets more than one license in a block.

Everstream tops its 2020 goals with its build-and-buy strategy

As 2020 winds down, it's mission accomplished for fiber network provider Everstream. Despite the pandemic, Everstream said on Wednesday that it had exceeded its 2020 network expansion goals that it first announced in January.

3GPP sets new timeline for next 5G specification

3GPP, the global telecommunications standards body, agreed to a new extended timeline for the next 5G specification. Known as Release 17, the schedule now anticipates completion in 2022, with a freeze in March 2022, followed by coding protocols frozen and stable in June 2022.

AWS says Trump's bias, errors led to Microsoft's JEDI win

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is not ready to go gently into the night in regards to the U.S. Department of Defense awarding the $10 billion JEDI contract to Microsoft.

Samsung, IBM collaborate on edge computing, 5G

Samsung Electronics and IBM announced a collaboration whereby they’re developing edge computing, 5G and hybrid cloud solutions to help businesses across industries modernize their operations and realize the promises of Industry 4.0.

Mavenir stokes open RAN, creates radio reference designs

Today Mavenir announced that it is establishing a new business unit that will develop hardware and software designs for open RAN radios. Its goal is to create an ecosystem of radio vendors that will build open RAN radios for the specific needs of operators around the world.

Colt CEO Gilder talks Covid lessons learned and what's next

After taking over as CEO in May during the Covid-19 pandemic, Keri Gilder has had a crash course on running the business while keeping an eye on Colt's employees and its future.

Vendors and operators demand 6GHz for 5G

Two dozen telecoms companies and industry organisations called on regulators and other stakeholders to reserve mid-band spectrum for ITM use, especially for 5G.

Ericsson to boost post-Brexit job market by 800

The Swedish telecom kit maker announced it will create up to 800 new jobs in the UK within the next two years driven by the accelerated 5G rollout.

Private 5G network deployed by Affirmed and partners

A Taiwanese IT hardware manufacturer has deployed a virtualized private 5G network using its own servers along with core network software from Affirmed, which was recently acquired by Microsoft. The RAN software comes from ASOCS, an Israeli provider of on-premise cloud solutions. The network was deployed on government-allocated spectrum.

Roku, WarnerMedia clinch deal for HBO Max

WarnerMedia's premium streaming service will launch on Roku devices on December 17 and support the OTT platform's 'Roku Pay' system.

A direct comparison: Tabulating 5G in the USA and China

Based on third-quarter 2020 data collected by Speedtest provider Ookla and provided to Light Reading, this is an apples-to-apples look at how China and the US stack up in 5G.

SolarWinds Attack Fallout: 18K Customers at Risk, ExtraHop IDs 550 Suspicious IP Addresses

As many as 18,000 SolarWinds customers installed the company’s Orion software updates containing malicious code likely inserted by Russian nation-state hackers, according to documents filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday.

Juniper Jolts Contrail Networking’s Kubernetes Support

Juniper Networks expanded its Contrail Networking to include better support for Kubernetes environments running on Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud, and virtual machines (VMs). The move continues the vendor’s push toward deeper Kubernetes integration.

Daily Roundup: Nokia CEO Re-Orgs for Growth

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Cable broadband sub growth to slow in 2021 – analyst

High-speed subscriber growth surged again in Q3, but 'pull-forward' growth fueled by the pandemic will likely mean the rate of customer additions among US cable operators will ramp down in 2021.

Upload strength a 'huge differentiator,' Google Fiber exec says

The pandemic has helped tell the upstream story for a key FTTP advantage as people continue to work and school from home, Google Fiber's Melani Griffith said at the 2020 Virtual Fiber Connect event.

Vodafone, AT&T sign up for 5G via SpaceMobile's satellites

Startup SpaceMobile said it now has the $500 million it needs for 'Phase 1' of its launch. Likely as a result, Vodafone and AT&T are SpaceMobile's two official customers.

AWS Unleashes Divergent, Specialized IoT Strategy

Amazon Web Services (AWS) this week unleashed a flurry of updates to its IoT platforms, and for the first time revealed how many devices are connected to its IoT core.

Nokia managers at risk as CEO warns 'it may be time for change'

Fixed networks boss Sandra Motley and software head Bhaskar Gorti may be next in line for the exit as Lundmark cuts the size of his management team.

EU readies sweeping new tech 'rules of the road'

The EU is readying drafts of sweeping new legislation to crack down on anti-competitive behavior by big tech, but expect two years of wrangling.

Subsidized open RAN heads to rural Nigeria

MTN strikes 2,000-site deal with local NaaS provider Hotspot Network; Parallel Wireless in supplier mix.

Nokia CEO Teases Three-Year Turnaround Plan

Nokia CEO Pekka Lundmark today shared more details about his turnaround strategy for the company, an effort that he said will continue through the end of 2023. 

Fast-growing Uniti buys Telstra home fiber business for $106M

Under the deal, Telstra will become one of Uniti's retail service providers.

Eurobites: UK's gigabit rollout needs to roll a lot faster, says EY report

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Deutsche Telekom and Vodafone extend wholesale agreement; Slovak Telekom switches on 5G with Ericsson; Orange migrates Siemens to SD-WAN.

India's Jio accuses Airtel, Vodafone Idea of unfairly exploiting farmers' protest

A row over recent farming legislation is hitting Jio where it hurts.

Cisco folds cable access into mobility unit

Merging of the units follows Cisco's recent exit from the cable amplifier business and the slow migration by operators toward network and service convergence.

Drahi buckles under pressure, raises offer for Altice Europe

Minority shareholders to withdraw legal action after Drahi's Next Private vehicle increases offer price to €5.35 per share.

Nokia is making a risky bet on open RAN

The Finnish equipment vendor is prioritizing a largely unproven technology as part of its latest turnaround strategy.

Telia Carrier Rolls Acacia Pluggables, Cisco Routers Into Network

Swedish network operator Telia Carrier today announced plans to join its IP and optical network layers using Acacia’s 400 Gb/s-capable pluggable coherent optics. These optics will be interfaced with Cisco’s routers and connect to Telia’s existing line system.

LF Energy Captains Power Grid Virtualization SEAPATH

LF Energy announced a new open source project called SEAPATH, or Software Enabled Automation Platform and Artifacts (THerein), that will provide grid operators with an open source, real-time platform to run virtualized automation technologies. 

5G fronthaul 2020: Focusing on practical scenarios

As discussed at Light Reading's 5G Transport & Networking Strategies event, operators are looking at practical approaches to converged fronthaul transport, but they need to act quickly.

Verizon to connect 9,000 Walgreens, Duane Reade stores

Verizon initially will provide services including Wi-Fi and SD-WAN, but company officials said the deal sets the stage for other, more advanced products like edge computing.

Verizon exec views dominant 4G LTE position as 5G advantage

As T-Mobile aggressively rolls out 2.5 GHz mid-band spectrum from Sprint, there has been a significant amount of attention paid to Verizon and AT&T’s need for mid-band for 5G.

Verizon’s Koeppe on what Verizon brings to AWS partnership

Talking about Verizon’s 5G roadmap this week, Adam Koeppe, SVP of Technology, Strategy Architecture and Planning, cited DSS benefits beyond nationwide coverage and discussed what Verizon brings to its mobile edge compute partnership with AWS. 

T-Mobile’s Ray expects 5G carrier aggregation in 2021

While his team at T-Mobile is going gangbusters deploying 2.5 GHz for 5G across the country, T-Mobile President of Technology Neville Ray hinted at a few things coming in 2021 that will make 5G an even better service.

AT&T’s Igal Elbaz is optimistic about O-RAN, lukewarm about FWA

While both Verizon and T-Mobile are forging ahead with fixed wireless access (FWA) deployments to bring broadband to suburban and rural areas, AT&T hasn’t made any big, similar FWA announcements.

Verizon tees up in-building 5G with WeWork

A few months after Verizon announced it would use indoor mmWave 5G cell sites from Corning, the pair recently started the first commercial installations at certain retail stores, and separately singed up WeWork. WeWork, a company offering co-working and flexible workspace, signed a deal with Verizon Business to deploy in-building 5G sites from and Corning across 10 locations in the U.S. Those sites are located in Atlanta, Boston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York City and Seattle. The project is expected to be completed by the third quarter of 2021, according to a WeWork spokesperson.

Twitter jumps on public cloud with AWS to its bolster user feeds

For the first time, Twitter is tapping into the public cloud by picking Amazon Web Services to deliver its services in real time. Twitter has employed its own data centers over the years, but the multi-year deal gives Twitter access to AWS' global cloud infrastructure to deliver its timelines.

BT wants an air corridor for drone testing

UK incumbent BT is keen to capitalise on all the drone hype, so it is leading a consortium that plans to set up the country’s first commercial air corridor for testing drones.

More consumers want 5G and more telcos want non-core revenues

Consumers are weighing up the pros and cons of upgrading to 5G mobile services, but telcos have more to think about than simply persuading them to go for it.

No surprises as Free Mobile undercuts rivals on 5G

French challenger brand Free Mobile has followed Bouygues, Orange and SFR by launching 5G, repeating its usual trick of arriving last, but offering access at no extra cost.

DataBank closes out its deal to buy Zayo's zColo data centers

DataBank has wrapped up its deal to buy Zayo Holding Group's zColo data centers in the U.S. and U.K.

GSMA bravely commits to MWC Shanghai physical event in Feb 2021

All flavours of MWC were cancelled in 2020 coz of coronavirus, but the GSMA is betting things are going to start improving rapidly next year.

TIM is the big winner as four become three in Brazil

Brazil is finally losing one of its big four mobile operators, with Oi having agreed a deal that will split its mobile assets between major rivals TIM, Telefonica and America Movil’s Claro.

China accused of using Caribbean mobile networks to spy on US devices

A new report alleges China has conducted mass surveillance of US mobile phones via China Unicom and proxies in the Caribbean.

Proximus picks Nokia to replace Huawei in its Luxembourg 5G RAN

Nokia has nabbed another 5G contract with Proximus, securing a deal to supply RAN equipment for the operator’s 5G network in Luxembourg, replacing Huawei in the process.

T-Mobile's 2021 5G goals: improved speeds, upgraded voice

Following his launch of standalone 5G, T-Mobile's Neville Ray hopes to push the envelope further by launching carrier aggregation and VoNR technology in 2021.

US government officially begins work on IIC for 5G

Amid reshuffling leadership across the US government, the NTIA said it is now working on technology that would 'standardize the spectrum sharing model' across a range of bands.

Instana Embraces Arm With PHP Monitoring Service

Application performance monitoring vendor Instana today announced its PHP monitoring and tracing service is available on Arm-based servers.

Daily Roundup: VMware ‘Paves the Earth With Tanzu’

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Apple supplier Wistron suffers loss after India factory violence

After property damage and looting, other manufacturers may have second thoughts about moving to India.

AWS Brings Controlled Chaos to the Cloud

Amazon Web Services (AWS) wants to help its customers bring some controlled chaos to their cloud-based services and applications. 

The next version of 5G delayed until 2022

The 3GPP confirmed concerns that it might delay the release of its next big batch of 5G technologies. Now 'Release 17' won't be finalized until 2022.

Microsoft Cloud Security Execs Score $100M, Launch Wiz

Cloud security startup Wiz emerged from stealth with $100 million in Series A financing and a security platform already in use at Fortune 100 customers including Docusign.

After Google outage, telcos should think twice about public cloud

Public cloud systems promise cost savings and convenience, but the wider risks cannot be ignored.

Comcast starts rolling HBO Max to X1 and Flex boxes

App launch on Comcast X1 and Flex devices comes ahead of the December 25 premiere of Wonder Woman 1984 on WarnerMedia's new supersized SVoD service and in movie theaters.

Aryaka launches new VPN for 'hybrid workplace'

The managed service integrates with Aryaka's SASE and SD-WAN services, with the goal of providing teleworkers with reliable, high-performance access to their enterprise applications.

Taiwan hits 1M 5G subs after five months

The small Asian country notches up 1 million 5G subscribers as Chunghwa strikes industry partnerships.

Vodafone UK loses CEO Jeffery to bankrupt Frontier

One of the UK telecom sector's most highly respected bosses has been lured to the US.

Comcast teams with broadcasters for ATSC 3.0 tech test

Trial in Portland, Oregon will focus on the transmission of ATSC 3.0 signals over the HFC network, starting with 4K and HDR video.

VMware’s Plan to ‘Pave the Earth With Tanzu’

As he looks ahead to 2021, VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger said winning at Kubernetes with his company’s Tanzu portfolio and strategy remains top of mind.

Gee whiz: G.Network raises $1.3B for full fiber rollout in London

Altnet plans to pass more than 1.4 million premises in the city over the next five years.

Remote Workers Fuel Versa’s SD-WAN, SASE Growth

The rapid shift to remote work following the onset of the pandemic early this year helped to accelerate Versa Network’s SD-WAN and secure access service edge (SASE) platforms in a new market: the home, said CMO Mike Wood in an interview with SDxCentral.

AWS, Oracle Lead Cloud Database Management Leaders

Gartner’s latest ranking of cloud database management systems is a who’s who of the cloud world with market dominant players Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft, Google, and Oracle all sharing the most upper-right quadrant of the “leaders” category. That category also houses SAP, IBM, Alibaba Cloud, and Teradata in its lower-left section.

Proximus dumps Huawei in Luxembourg too

Luxembourg operator Tango to use Nokia equipment in its 5G network.

Cox Communications: A network automation success story

SPONSORED: Cox has built a team dedicated to driving network automation across the organization and is already seeing early successes.

Plume eyes 6 GHz as Wi-Fi becomes hip again

Comcast was an early investor in Plume and also Plume’s first major customer in the United States. Comcast uses Plume’s software as part of its Wi-Fi mesh offering. The software rides on Comcast’s xFi Pods and helps eliminate residential Wi-Fi dead spots. It also provides security, parental controls, and access controls for each connected device. It can also prioritize devices and optimize the Wi-Fi traffic in the home.

T-Mobile makes moves to advance 5G drone tech

T-Mobile today announced it has made an unspecified investment in The Drone Racing League (DRL) via the T-Mobile Ventures fund, with plans to increase its expertise in 5G drone technology over the next several years.

C-band 5G auction nears $5B after a dozen rounds

After a dozen rounds of bidding, the C-band spectrum auction reached almost $5 billion in gross proceeds Friday.

NEC treats India to a taste of its OpenRAN excellence

No sooner has Japanese tech vendor NEC unveiled an OpenRAN centre of excellence in the UK than it announces one in India too.

Report: Cloud providers drive jump in Q3 data center spend

Worldwide spending on data center hardware and software was up 2% year-over-year thanks to cloud providers' largesse, according to a report.

Google suffers widespread Monday morning outage

Google services across Gmail, YouTube, Google Assistant, Google Drive, Google Classroom and Google Docs, among others, were down for about an hour Monday morning. Google users first noticed the widespread outage around 6:55 a.m. Eastern Time Monday morning, which led to hashtags such as "#YouTubeDOWN" to start trending on Twitter. 

Mavenir and MTI deliver first Evenstar open RAN radio

An obscure, Taiwanese radio vendor – Microelectronics Technology (MTI) – got some attention last week for its work with Dish Network on open radio access network (RAN) hardware. And now, Mavenir has announced it partnered with MTI to create the Evenstar B3 remote radio head (RRH).

Google Cloud, AWS and Azure want to 'friend' telcos

Because, in part, of their millions of last mile connections and central offices, Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud are directing a laser-like focus on telcos.

Asia set for more tower consolidation

A pair of towers deals in Asia will together bring in well over US$1 billion, it seems.

EU human rights agency says we should tread carefully with AI

The EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) has issued a report warning of confusion about the impact AI and automation can have of people’s rights.

Proximus boosts multi-brand strategy via €130m MVNO deal

Proximus has agreed to spend €130 million to acquire virtual player Mobile Vikings, a move that will further its strategy of targeting various market segments with multiple brands.

Giffgaff sells its soul to AWS

UK MVNO says it has gone ‘all-in’ on Amazon Web Services to power all of its technology infrastructure and application development.

The inherent security of Open RAN

Why open the Radio Access Network?

Unlock 5G speeds and low latencies with high-performance DPI

To meet the demands of increasing 5G use cases, network operators need DPI solutions that can be scaled up in real time. This article discusses how underlying server processing capabilities influence the speed and throughput of a DPI software library and talks about the upgrade requirements needed to support new 5G traffic volumes and the lower latencies. Learn more.

Empowering Telecom Providers through a Ubiquitous Edge Platform

MEC is critical for both wireless and wireline carriers

Frontier lacks 'technological capabilities' for gigabit connections – Senator

A Republican Senator from West Virginia is arguing that Frontier won't be able to deliver 1Gbit/s services in her state through the FCC's RDOF auction.

Podcast: Orange Business Services gets SASE

Rob Mello, head of strategy and transformation in the Americas for Orange Business Services, joins the podcast to discuss the carrier's use of the cloud when deploying security services to enterprise customers.

Small cell outlook remains cloudy in US market

'We believe a major acceleration in nodes on air is more likely to happen later than 2021 or 2022,' predict the financial analysts at Raymond James.

Rakuten’s US Leader Defends Open RAN Platform

Azita Arvani knows how difficult it is to make open radio access networks (RAN) work properly, but she believes those challenges can be overcome by those that fully embrace the vision.

Daily Roundup: SolarWinds Software at Center of FireEye, US Government Cyberattack

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Free Peacock to limit access to 'The Office'

The free, ad-supported version of Peacock will limit access to seasons 1 and 2 of 'The Office,' while the premium, paid versions of NBCU's new service will supply all nine seasons, plus some exclusive, bonus fare.

AT&T Cybersecurity: Enterprise Security Isn’t Prepared for 5G

Less than 10% of security professionals say that their security posture is fully prepared for 5G rollouts, according to an AT&T Cybersecurity report.

India approves mega public Wi-Fi initiative

Plans for a nationwide system of Wi-Fi hotspots come late in the day considering that low-cost 4G services are now widely available.

The clouds aren't parting just yet for NBN Co

The completion of Australia's wholesale broadband network does not banish its financial woes.

Open RAN threatens new clashes over intellectual property

The new technology risks infringing patents owned by companies that are not a part of its club.

Russia-linked cyber group hacks US government agencies

A Russia-linked hacker group, APT29, has used a vulnerability in frequently used network software to carry out a major hack into US government computers.

Roku, Charter in streaming skirmish

Roku has blocked access to the cable op's Spectrum TV app after the two sides failed to cut a new deal. They are also arguing at the FCC as Charter tries to end a ban on data caps and paid peering deals.

SolarWinds Supply Chain Attack Led to FireEye, U.S. Government Breaches

FireEye today said that nation-state hackers breached its network by inserting malicious code into a SolarWinds software update.

Proximus to buy Mobile Vikings for €130M

Belgian operator expects the deal to acquire the MVNO from DPG Media to complete in 2021.

Plume CEO on deployment milestones, M&A and rising competition

Plume CEO Fahri Diner digs into the drivers of the vendor's global deployment totals, and discusses Plume's recent acquisition of Walleye Networks and why scale is critical in this hotly contested market.

NEC's open RAN roadshow pitches up in India

Japanese supplier establishes 'technical verification' open RAN lab in India, seen as 'complementary' to Center of Excellence in the UK.

Eurobites: Sky and Amazon play nice

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Giffgaff goes with AWS; Telefónica teams up for robotic cybersecurity; BT fined for procurement sneakiness.