Trend Micro, Palo Alto Networks Among Cybersecurity ‘Champions’

Palo Alto Networks, Trend Micro, and Kaspersky achieved channel “champion” status in Canalys’ latest cybersecurity matrix.

There are vRAN challenges to overcome — Madden

Rakuten Mobile has done some good work in building its open vRAN network. After some initial struggles and heroic engineering efforts, it’s on the air and it works. Hats off to CTO Tareq Amin and his team for proving that vRAN works.

Long-Awaited STIX, TAXII Cyberthreat Sharing Standards Approved

STIX and TAXII, two popular open source projects that automate threat-intelligence sharing, have been approved as full-fledged OASIS standards in a move that supporters say will help prevent and defend against cyberattacks.

Ericsson CEO pegs O-RAN as key for 6G

Ericsson’s chief executive said on Friday that the Swedish vendor will have open RAN products when the technology is ready for the market, but doesn’t see that on the immediate horizon. In the meantime, the Swedish vendor is staying focused on dedicated gear that can be deployed for 5G now.

Ericsson’s China sales dive 60% in Q2

Ericsson in the second quarter experienced a sales dive in mainland China, where it’s bracing for a loss of market share as tensions between the vendor’s home market of Sweden and China appear to be having an impact.

BT's Openreach tests Nokia's 25G PON fiber technology

Nokia and Openreach, a subsidiary of BT, tested 25G PON fiber technology at Openreach’s lab in Ipswich, U.K. The companies say the trials prove that current GPON and XGS-PON broadband technologies and future upgrades to 25G PON will work together seamlessly.

Research shows trouble in how Wi-Fi, LAA get along

When the cellular industry first lobbied for the introduction of LTE in unlicensed spectrum, the outcry from the Wi-Fi world was loud and furious: Don’t mess with our spectrum.

Ericsson wins $8.3B 5G deal with Verizon

Ericsson today says it won a new $8.3 billion 5G deal with Verizon that mainly focuses on radio access network (RAN) equipment. In today’s second quarter 2021 earnings call Ericsson’s CEO Börje Ekholm said the multi-year deal with Verizon is the largest contract in the history of Ericsson.

Bell rings the changes with Google Cloud pact

Bell Canada has become the latest major telecom to announce its latest public cloud deal, this time hooking up with Google Cloud to give its network and IT infrastructure a leg up.

Ericsson shares plunge on China woes

It’s official: Ericsson is being punished by China for Sweden’s decision to ban Huawei. Otherwise thing’s are looking OK for the kit vendor.

Smart homes are back on the agenda in the UK

Consumers in the UK are once again starting to see the appeal of smart home-related technology and it’s not just about smart TVs.

Ericsson Fights Fading China Outlook With Voluminous Verizon Deal

Ericsson deftly buttressed bad news with good as it reported financial results for the second quarter of 2021. The radio access network (RAN) vendor’s outlook worsened in China during the quarter, but it also just signed an $8.3 billion deal with Verizon that CEO Börje Ekholm called “the largest contract in the history of Ericsson.”

T-Mobile Covets Government Money on Lumen’s Edge

T-Mobile US and Lumen Technologies this week made good on a deal announced three months ago to pair assets from their respective networks for government agencies.

Intel Weighs GlobalFoundries Buy to Bolster Capacity

Intel isn’t afraid to drop some serious cash in its pursuit to become a leading-edge foundry operator. And now, GlobalFoundries could be on the menu, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

Daily Roundup: Microsoft Pledges Zero-Carbon Energy Match

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Former Nutanix CEO Pandey Scorches $50M DevRev Launch

Former Nutanix CEO and co-founder Dheeraj Pandey is back on the scene after a short hiatus heading up his new $50 million-backed venture DevRev, which aims to connect developers more quickly with revenue streams from their applications. The move is the first for Pandey following is surprise departure from Nutanix late last year.

Boingo to equip 12 airports with AT&T’s mmWave 5G

Boingo Wireless, well known for its distributed antenna system (DAS) and Wi-Fi expertise, is bringing millimeter wave 5G connectivity from AT&T to 12 airports across the U.S.

C-Band for 5G private wireless takes a test run in Germany

Network operators and enterprises that want to use C-Band spectrum for 5G private wireless can learn the ropes in Germany, where consultant and integrator umlaut is creating a 5G campus network at its headquarters in Aachen. umlaut, which is set to become part of Accenture, was awarded 100 MHz of C-Band spectrum by the German government and is using it to create a 5G private network that will serve as a testbed for other companies. 

Frontier extends fiber past more than 300,000 sites in 2 states

Frontier Communications is advancing its fiber deployments in pockets of the U.S. The company said this week that as part of the initial phase of its multi-year expansion efforts it’s deploying fiber broadband connections past an additional 280,000 consumers in Connecticut and an additional 24,000 consumers in San Angelo, Texas in 2021.

FCC’s Rosenworcel proposes Raleigh, Boston as open RAN, 5G sites

FCC Acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel has proposed establishing Raleigh, North Carolina and Boston, Massachusetts as new innovation zones for wireless communications research and development.

Samsung, KT launch 5G SA in South Korea

Samsung Electronics and KT Corporation (KT) are crowing about a big achievement in their backyard, having launched Korea’s first commercial 5G standalone (SA) network.

Verizon expands FWA business offering to 42 cities

Verizon is upping the ante in its rivalry with cable companies, now offering its 5G Business Internet fixed wireless access (FWA) service to businesses in parts of 42 U.S. cities, up from the previous 24 markets.

AT&T puts 5G partnerships on display at WarnerMedia lab

NEW YORK CITY—AT&T on Wednesday gave a 5G push at a media event here where it showcased a flurry of partnerships and a few media-focused experiences. This week the carrier also hit the 250 million 5G coverage mark and removed data caps from its premium unlimited plan.

T-Mobile and Lumen court joint enterprise, government customers

T-Mobile and Lumen Technologies today said they’re targeting enterprise and government organizations with their joint 5G and edge computing services.

Broadcom settlement may benefit Adtran, says Cowen

Broadband equipment vendor Adtran should be one of the chief beneficiaries of Broadcom’s settlement with the Federal Trade Commission over monopoly charges, the result of which could lower chip expenses going forward for Broadcom customers like Adtran.

KT takes the plunge on standalone 5G

South Korean operator KT has become one of the world’s first operators to move its commercial 5G network to standalone mode.

Ericsson, Telia tech trial lowers 5G latency, boosts battery life

Ericsson and Telia have successfully trialled a new feature that can improve smartphone battery life and lower latency in 5G standalone networks.

Lumen could raise $5 billion-plus from asset sales

US B2B comms outfit Lumen Technologies is looking to raise US$5 billion or more by selling certain consumer operations, according to a rumour that emerged this week.

Lightyear snags $13.1M to boost telecom procurement platform

U.S. software company Lightyear raised $3.7 million last year to fuel the launch of a novel platform that enables enterprises to buy and manage their telecom and IT services online. Now, it’s looking to double its headcount and scale its go-to market operation after scoring a fresh $13.1 million cash infusion from investors.

India’s Airtel will use Cisco’s managed SD-WAN and SASE

In a big win for Cisco, India’s Bharti Airtel announced it will expand its existing SD-WAN deal with the company to include managed SD-WAN and secure access service edge (SASE) architecture.

US extends anti-China bribe program to more operators

Mid-sized US operators can now apply for money to swap out Huawei and ZTE kit from their networks.

Samsung and KT Launch First Commercial 5G SA Network in Korea

Samsung Electronics and KT Corporation (KT) today announced they have successfully launched Korea’s first commercial 5G SA network, turning on next-generation service in the country.

Ericsson Lands $8.3B for Verizon 5G RAN Expansion

Verizon’s 5G network buildout just got much more expensive. The operator signed a five-year $8.3 billion contract with Ericsson for a sweeping range of 5G radio access network (RAN) equipment and software.

Microsoft Floats Sustainability Cloud, Pledges Zero-Carbon Energy Match

Microsoft announced a new sustainability-focused cloud offering at its Inspire event this week. Cloud for Sustainability aims to help organizations simplify the process of measuring, understanding, and acting upon their carbon footprint. 

Daily Roundup: SolarWinds Patches Critical Zero-Day Bug

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TSMC CEO: Auto Chip Supply to Normalize in Q3

Good news for automakers: TSMC CEO C.C. Wei expects automotive semiconductor supply to normalize later this summer.

Google Clinches Post in Bell Canada’s 5G Cloud

Bell Canada today shared plans to move some 5G network services into Google Cloud, marking its second hyperscaler deal in as many months and a realization of the operator’s multi-cloud vision.

Juniper Scores SD-WAN Win With CMC Networks

CMC Networks this week added Juniper Networks’ SD-WAN and Mist platforms to its managed services portfolio.

India's Airtel Taps Cisco for Managed SD-WAN, SASE

Bharti Airtel today expanded its relationship with Cisco to bring secure access service edge (SASE) capabilities to its SD-WAN customers.

KT Rouses Korea’s First 5G Standalone Core

KT Corp. today said it deployed the first 5G standalone (SA) core in Korea with a big assist from Samsung, making it one of very few operators with a 5G core. 

No, Boost isn’t going for a ‘flea market’ look

Given the changes afoot at Boost Mobile, it’s no wonder some might be curious about Boost’s retail strategy going forward. Some have even said it’s akin to a flea market.

Dish’s Stephen Bye updates on network at FCC’s open RAN event

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is holding an open RAN event today and tomorrow, featuring a who’s who list of speakers in the open RAN movement.

BT lays out ambitious 5G plans for EE in U.K.

BT unveiled plans to offer 5G across the entire U.K., combining its mobile, Wi-Fi and fiber infrastructures to become what it considers the first fully converged network in the U.K.

Millicom keeping an eye on LEO satellite tech, CTIO says

Millicom is working to expand 4G services in Latin America and keeping an eye on satellite-based tech including low Earth orbit (LEO), according to CTIO Xavier Rocoplan.

AT&T hits 250M milestone with 5G low-band coverage

AT&T now covers more than 250 million people across the U.S. with its flavor of 5G, which includes low-band spectrum in large parts of the country. It reached that goal a full six months earlier than originally planned.

FCC sets date to begin reimbursement for Huawei rip and replace

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) set October 29 as the date companies can start applying for reimbursement funds for ripping and replacing Huawei and ZTE equipment from their networks. And it expanded the pool of companies that can get reimbursed.

UK says Cellnex/CK Hutchison towers deal threatens competition

The UK’s competition watchdog is proposing to take its investigation into Cellnex’s planned acquisition of CK Hutchison’s towers to the next level unless they can give it a good reason not to.

Telia Carrier: largest 2020 DDoS attack was 50% bigger than 2019

Telia Carrier found that distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks continued to increase in size and scale in 2020.

OpenRAN not a priority as BT and EE talk up their ‘converged network’

BTEE had one of those strategic, news-light briefing sessions today, in which it was stressed that OpenRAN is far down its priority list.

Djibouti sale could struggle to attract telco investors

Djibouti has confirmed that it will sell of a chunk of its incumbent telecoms operator, but questions remain over how attractive the asset will prove to would-be investors.

SolarWinds Patches Critical Zero-Day Bug Amid Targeted Attacks

SolarWinds released a “hotfix” to resolve a critical remote code execution (RCE) bug in its Serv-U products. Microsoft recently notified the software vendor about the vulnerability exploitation involving “a limited, targeted set of customers and a single threat actor.” SolarWinds urges their customers using Serv-U to immediately install the fix.

SonicWall Warns of ‘Imminent’ Ransomware Attack

SonicWall today warned of an “imminent” ransomware campaign targeting its older Secure Mobile Access (SMA) and Secure Remote Access (SRA) products and advised customers to either update their firmware or immediately disconnect their appliances and change all related passwords.

Daily Roundup: Cybersecurity Unicorn Illumio Bets On Automation for Zero-Trust Wins

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AT&T Pushes 5G Footprint to 250M People

AT&T’s low-band 5G network now covers more than 250 million people, meeting a year-end goal about six months early and maintaining its competitive position with rivals Verizon and T-Mobile US.  

AT&T, Cisco Execs Claim Open RAN Boosts 5G Security

Executives at AT&T, Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, and Altiostar claim an ongoing effort to disaggregate hardware from software and break code down further into more focused functions and workloads will eventually increase the security stature of mobile networks.

Xilinx Lofts HBM Into Versal FPGAs

Xilinx’s Versal adaptive compute acceleration platform (ACAP) got a high-bandwidth memory (HBM) upgrade today that the company claims eliminates bottlenecks and reduces power consumption for memory-bound workloads.

Cybersecurity Unicorn Illumio Bets On Automation for Zero-Trust Wins

Illumio updated its segmentation platform with new automation features and integrations that its founders say can speed up and simplify organizations’ zero-trust security adoption.

Lumen explores sale of $5B in assets to Apollo: report

Lumen Technologies is in talks to sell a portfolio of its assets to the investment firm Apollo Global Management, according to unnamed sources of Bloomberg.

TIP's OpenWiFi: the other hot private wireless initiative — Chua

Two months ago, the Telecom Infra Project (TIP) launched OpenWiFi Release 1.0 (recording available if you missed the event). OpenWiFi represents a disaggregated approach to enterprise Wi-Fi that provides all the elements of an enterprise-grade solution. The project covers access points (APs), the firmware and network operating system on those APs, a cloud-native Wi-Fi controller (via a software development kit), and a provisioning infrastructure with a public-key infrastructure (PKI) that certifies and identifies APs.

T-Mobile keeps crown for 5G coverage, speed - Opensignal

T-Mobile dominated the latest 5G report from Opensignal, scoring higher marks than rivals AT&T and Verizon across categories of reach, availability, and upload and download speeds.

AT&T rolls out Elite unlimited data without throttling

AT&T announced on Monday that it’s offering customers on its Unlimited Elite plan an even better deal: unlimited high-speed data without the penalty of slower speeds if customers go over their monthly allotment.

Nokia plans to boosts its full year 2021 guidance

Nokia today took the unusual step of announcing that it plans to update its financial guidance upwards. The company said it is seeing continued strength in its business during its second quarter, which is improving its expectations for the full year 2021.

Comcast wins 2 more Defense contracts totaling $155.8M

Comcast Business just keeps winning government Defense contracts. Today, it announced that Comcast Government Services has been awarded two additional contracts worth $155.8 million in total from the U.S. Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA).

Millicom embarks on 4G upgrade in Latin America with Ericsson

Millicom is embarking on a $135 million network upgrade in Latin America, tapping Ericsson for 5G-ready gear as the operator embraces a market-by-market vendor strategy and expands 4G coverage.

Vodafone Spain picks Ericsson for 5G SA core

The Spanish bit of Vodafone has joined its British and German stablemates in picking Ericsson for its standalone 5G core work.

Middle East’s big players ink OpenRAN partnership

Some of the biggest telecoms operators in the Middle East have come together to form the industry’s latest OpenRAN alliance.

GCI strikes $150M satellite deal with Intelsat

The Alaskan service provider GCI has struck a $150 million deal with Intelsat to expand capacity for telecommunication services in rural areas.

Nokia is feeling optimistic

Following a solid start to the year, Finnish kit vendor Nokia expects to tweak up its forward guidance later this month.

Vodafone Idea loses customers but should still find investors

Indian operator group Vodafone Idea is struggling for customers and for the cash it needs to keep its business afloat.

Daily Roundup: Palo Alto Networks Supports Nvidia BlueField DPUs

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What Buying SAS Would Mean for Broadcom

Broadcom is reportedly in talks to add multinational data analytics vendor SAS Institute to its growing software portfolio. How SAS plays into the chipmaker’s broader strategy, however, remains unclear.

AT&T Raises a Mess of 5G Edge Schemes

AT&T’s recent moves in the network cloud infrastructure space will likely impact its mobile edge computing strategy and outlook. 

Reflections on Mobile World Congress 2021 — Putcha

MWC 2021 did not have the blizzard of announcements that one would normally associate with the show. However, against a backdrop of accelerating 5G deployments around the world and increasing attention being given by telcos to network transformation, there were several announcements related to network infrastructure that are worth exploring further.  

CTIA, WISPA critical of Biden’s competition executive order

Wireless industry advocates CTIA and WISPA have voiced concern over an executive order released Friday by President Joe Biden that in part targets broadband competition and encourages more regulation.

Rakuten fetes 5G SA data transfer with Tokyo Tech

Rakuten Mobile reports that it successfully verified data transfer on a 5G standalone (SA) mobile network with the help of Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech) at Tokyo Tech’s Ookayama Campus.

SASE firm Netskope gets $300M in funding

Secure access services edge (SASE) company Netskope said it raised $300 million in Series H funding that it will use to aggressively expand its platform and go-to-market strategy to meet demand for SASE. The company added that this latest round of funding increased its valuation to $7.5 billion.

GAO: Small businesses need faster broadband to compete

Most small businesses have access to broadband but that broadband connection might not be fast enough to handle their needs. A new report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) suggests that the FCC’s current broadband minimum benchmark speed of 25 Mbps for downstream traffic and 3 Mbps for upstream traffic is too slow for most small businesses and needs to revised.

Euskaltel board recommends acceptance of Masmovil acquisition

Consolidation among Spanish operators got one stap closer after the board of Euskaltel recommended its shareholders accept Masmovil’s €2 billion acquisition bid.

Comcast expands “Grows to Code” training program

Comcast is expanding its “Grows to Code” program to include more frontline workers at more locations beyond Philadelphia. Launched in 2020, the “Grows to Code” program trains and prepares Comcast frontline workers to become software engineers. All 12 members of the 2020 class completed their course requirements and are now full-time Comcast engineers.

Nokia rolls out Africa’s newest greenfield network

Africell is using equipment from Nokia in what will become Africa’s newest mobile network when it launches in Angola later this year.

Huawei loses bid to submit new evidence in CFO extradition case

Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou is accused by the US of fraud and email evidence that may have proven her innocence has been rejected by a Canadian judge.

Telenor Montenegro buy is just the start for 4iG

PPF Group is selling Telenor Montenegro just three years after it acquired the business as part of a drive to become a medium-sized European telecoms operator group.

Microsoft Buys RiskIQ: How Will It Integrate Threat Intel, Attack Surface Visibility?

Microsoft today announced the acquisition of cybersecurity software maker RiskIQ. The deal comes as the threat of ransomware intensifies across all industries and as Microsoft battles a spate of recent critical vulnerabilities that hackers exploited to breach its customers’ systems.

Daily Roundup: Netskope Valuation Soars to $7.5B on $300M Funding Round

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Palo Alto Networks Supports Nvidia BlueField DPUs

Palo Alto Networks today announced a virtual next-generation firewall designed specifically for use with Nvidia’s BlueField line of data processing units (DPUs).

ETSI Plots Steady 5G Boosts Amid Pandemic Woes

The COVID-19 pandemic caused a six-month delay in the 5G standardization process at 3GPP, but work is back on track, according to ETSI Director General Luis Jorge Romero.

PsiQuantum, GlobalFoundries Bet Big On Quantum Computing

Quantum computing is in many senses the holy grail of high-performance computing. The technology promises to dramatically accelerate simulations, machine learning, and perhaps most terrifyingly, render modern encryption schemes mute. At least that’s the hope — or fear — depending on how you look at it.