Why Tier 2/3 CSPs Are Being Sidelined

The evolution of the communications service provider (CSP) sector is creating a schism between the large, resource-heavy Tier 1 operators and the smaller Tier 2/3 players, says TM Forum Chief Analyst Mark Newman.

Oath boss reportedly edging towards the exit

Tim Armstrong, the boss of Verizon’s media unit Oath, is reportedly discussing terms to exit the business.

Broadcom CEO Dangles CA Technologies Bait, Investors Bite

CEO Hock Tan said the company will sell hardware to new customers and will see a boost from 5G.

OneWeb gets new CEO amid executive shuffle

The announcement makes Adrian Steckel the third CEO for OneWeb in six years.

FreedomPop’s ‘Unreal Mobile’ now offers AT&T SIM cards

Unreal Mobile plans start at $10 per month for 1 GB high-speed data.

Huawei caught being naughty with benchmark scores, but it doesn’t seem to care

Four Huawei smartphone models have been delisted from independent benchmark service UL after it was found to be producing artificially high and misleading benchmark scores.

BMW launches its own virtual assistant – let’s hope that’s not the start of a trend

BMW has made a bold statement this week, breaking free from the shackles of Silicon Valley. In launching its own virtual assistant, BMW is confident it can deliver a better experience than Google, Amazon or Microsoft.

Ericsson and Qualcomm claim first 5G NR mmWave call to a smartphone

The incremental ‘5G first’ claims continue as Ericsson and Qualcomm say they’ve done the first 5G NR ‘call’ over the 39 GHz band to a smartphone-like device.

CityFibre taunts rivals with 10 Gbps speeds claim

CityFibre has announced a partnership with Calix to deliver, what it claims, would be the world’s only Software Defined Access (SDA) operating system across, delivering mouth-watering speeds across its fibre network.

Is SoftBank using IPO to secure financing for other businesses?

A report claims SoftBank Group CEO Masayoshi Son is asking underwriters for the SoftBank Mobile IPO to lend money to other businesses in the company.

How the top carriers compare in TV ad spend in August

For the third month in a row, T-Mobile outspent other wireless carriers on TV advertising in August, according to data from iSpot.tv.

Cisco, VMware cash in on SD-WAN buys: report

Cisco and VMware are reaping the rewards from their deals last year to buy SD-WAN vendors Viptela and VeloCloud, respectively, according to a report.

HTBASE Provides Composable Infrastructure Across Multiple Clouds

Its pièce de résistance is to use software-defined networking to take resources from clouds and on-premises data centers and make it look like it’s a single data center, all on the same Layer 2.

HashiCorp Fortifies Consul Service Mesh With Kubernetes Support

Consul competes against Istio but has a broader focus on multi-tenancy infrastructure deployments.

SDxCentral's Weekly Roundup — September 7, 2018

Telefónica taps Netcracker for BSS; Cisco launches hybrid cloud platform for Google Cloud; China considers a merger of its three wireless carriers.

Verizon Says First 5G Markets Will Offer 'White Glove' Experience

 The company says its four 5G launch markets will be used to refine its customer experience and stress-test the network.  

Verizon, Nokia take 5G to the field

Verizon and Nokia completed what they say is the first over-the-air, end-to-end data transmission on a commercial 3GPP 5G New Radio network.

Starry Sets NYC Launch, Aligns With Real Estate Developer

Startup set to expand reach for cap-free wireless broadband service that has been connecting with cord-cutters.

Altice USA's 'Full' MVNO Puts It in SIM City

Operating the core network and owning the SIM card will lead to lower churn, pave the path to more control of the service and offer other benefits, CEO says.

Dope, Booze, Vitriol & Fraud: Tesla's Car Crash Week

Elon Musk finds himself at the center of a storm engulfing the high-tech carmaker, whose shares have taken a battering.

AT&T's Gilbert: AI Critical to 5G Infrastructure

AI and machine learning are essential to scaling the deployment and configuration of the exploding numbers of cellsites needed for 5G, says Mazin Gilbert in the first of a two-part series.

The Operational Challenges of 5G

Heavy Reading senior analyst James Crawshaw talks about some of the challenges, such as power management, that will arise as 5G networks are deployed, and suggests that AI and analytics tools will be needed to help automate an increasing number of operational processes in a 5G world.

WiCipedia: Stargazing, Subsidized Childcare & Bulgarian Equality

This week in our WiC roundup: Lyft raises $1M for Girls Who Code; a knitted solar system steals our hearts; reimagining the childcare dilemma; and more.

Eurobites: Vendors Vie for 5G Laurels Ahead of MWC Americas

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: EU approves Apple's acquisition of Shazam; Deutsche Telekom's data fortress; streaming piracy plagues soccer World Cup.

Tesla Shareholder Sues CEO Musk for Securities Fraud

Musk is accused of damaging Tesla's shareholders after tweeting plans to take the carmaker private in August.

Comcast Streams TV Outside the Box

New beta app delivers live TV, VoD and cloud DVR on managed IP network to newer Samsung smart TVs without 'additional outlet' fee… for now.

The Programmable Switch Era Is Here... At Last!

Respondents to Heavy Reading's Multicore Processor and Switch Survey consider programmability as the most important differentiator in switch functions.

Qualcomm, Ericsson complete 5G milestone

Qualcomm and Ericsson announced they completed a 5G New Radio (NR) call using a smartphone form factor mobile test device.

Juniper CTO: Open source is fundamental to our strategy

Juniper Networks' Bikash Koley has earned his open source stripes, and now he's using that knowledge to help his current company further develop its…

Siris Capital makes half a billion bucks in 10 months with Intralinks sale

Private equity firm Siris Capital is selling Enterprise collaboration software vendor Intralinks for $1.5 billion, having bought it for a billion less than a year ago.

ETSI Releases Security Encryption Specs for 5G and IoT Uses

The specifications are for attribute-based encryption that describes how to secure personal data, combining access control with data encryption.

Telia declares Finland is ready for the 5G promised land

Finland is set to be one of the first nations in Europe to experience the wonders of 5G as Telia targets the beginning of 2019 for commercial launch.

Justice Department eyes up social media probe over competition

Department of Justice spokesman Devin O’Malley has raised the prospect of an investigation into whether the social media giants are impacting competition through ‘intentionally stifling the free exchange of ideas’.

FirstNet CEO resigns, Ed Horowitz appointed as chair

Mike Poth’s efforts helped secure AT&T as FirstNet’s nationwide wireless contractor in deploying and maintaining the NPSBN during his tenure.

Pew Research: U.S. Facebook users deleting app from phones

According to a Pew Research Center poll conducted earlier this summer, more than 25% of Facebook users have deleted the app from their mobile phones.

Report: Ericsson, Huawei dominate EPC market share

Huawei and Ericsson are the dominant forces in the evolved packet core (EPC) market, according to a recent report by Dell'Oro Group.

Vodafone's Heeran: Time to move on from NFV

Vodafone's Fran Heeran is pretty much done with NFV and ready to bear down on cloudification.

Vivendi inevitably moans about TIM now that it’s not running it

French telecoms and media conglomerate Vivendi has issued a statement saying how rubbish Italian operator group TIM has been since Vivendi lost control of the boardroom.

Consumers ‘cracking the code’ when it comes to smartphone purchases

Research from CCS Insight suggests consumers in France and the UK are becoming more savvy when purchasing devices, seeking more cost-effective options outside the telco channel.

Special Report—Everything we know about 5G

Here are a few other things we know about 5G as the industry heads into the second annual MWCA, to be held Sept. 12-14 in Los Angeles.

Mist Spreads Its WLAN Technology to Juniper Networks' SD-WAN

Juniper will integrate the Mist Learning WLAN with Juniper’s Contrail SD-WAN technology.

PureSec Releases 'Free' Basic AWS Lambda Serverless Security

The serverless security library targets the runtime environment but is not a replacement for an enterprise-grade platform deployment.

Headcount: The Latest in Hirings, Firings, and Retirings — September 6, 2018

Aryaka names new CEO (again); Former AlienVault CEO will now head AT&T cybersecurity; and Kontron absorbs Inocybe leadership in acquisition.

Ericsson, Huawei Are Winners in the EPC Market, Dell’Oro Study Says

LTE growth coupled with the early stages of 5G deployments fueled the evolved packet core market in the second quarter of the year.

Ciena strengthens its software suite with DonRiver acquisition

Optical and IP transport company Ciena acquired software and service company DonRiver to shore up its Blue Planet portfolio.

eBay Moves Away From OpenStack, Embraces Kubernetes and Docker

The company has also built its own servers and plans to open source them. It's midway through its re-platforming project with the goal of making its infrastructure more homogenous.

Eutelsat Pitches New Content Platform to Customers

Cirrus will take the burden of heavy spending on platform technology off broadcasters and other customers, says European satellite operator at press conference in London.

Haste Sounds Out ISPs on Low-Latency Service for Gamers

Startup currently sells its service directly to consumers, but is discussing how that could be bundled and packaged with broadband service tiers.

Mercy Fills Virtualization Prescription

The technology arm of Mercy healthcare system had to get 'really good at what we do,' to meet the needs of a changing market.

Could 5G Revitalize the Thin Client Market?

Boring ol' terminals are ready to make the leap into the next generation.

5G Is Shifting the Packet/Optical Tectonic Plates

Ericsson's 5G transport partnership picks are telling.

5G Speeds Can't Match DOCSIS 3.1, Charter CFO Says

But exec sees some 'edge use cases' where 5G will make more sense than wired connections.

Eurobites: Telia Fires Up 5G in Helsinki

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Vivendi slams Elliott's management of Telecom Italia; CityFibre goes with Calix for SDN bells and whistles; Deutsche Telekom gets biometric.

China eyes mega merger in pursuit of 5G edge

Sources are reporting a potential mega merger on the horizon, combining China Telecom and China Unicom to produce the second largest telco worldwide.

5G will clear the autobahn of software roadblocks: Banasik

The wireless industry as a whole should continue to assess new use cases leveraging 5G’s inherent capabilities. 

Wireless Broadband Alliance extols the virtues of 802.11ax

The Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA) has released a whitepaper promoting the benefits of the latest version of the ugly sibling of the telecommunications world, wifi.

Adva simplifies NFV for with updates to its Ensemble platform

Adva has put its three years of experience working on NFV into a major revamp of its Ensemble suite that it says will make deploying NFV much easier.

Ericsson picks Juniper, ECI for 5G optical transport

Ericsson is partnering with Juniper Networks and ECI Telecom to create an end-to-end optical transport solution for 4G and 5G traffic.

Ericsson expands 5G platform via an enhanced radio system

Ericsson is launching the RAN Compute portfolio, an architecture that allows service providers to flexibly distribute RAN functions where needed.

T-Mobile launches Apple device leasing program

T-Mobile said business customers can get an iPhone 8 for $18 per month.

Verizon stock ends 4-month rally with 2 downgrade reports

Analyst Craig Moffett sees an end to the aggressive price wars that have dominated the wireless sector since 2014.

Belfast tops the UK charts for mobile connectivity

Rootmetrics has crowned Belfast the best city in the UK for mobile connectivity across the first six months of 2018.

Study claims streaming video apps are being throttled by wireless carriers

Researchers say online video apps like YouTube, Netflix and Amazon Prime are being throttled on wireless networks.

UK operators want local authorities to be more helpful on infrastructure

Mobile UK has very courteously pointed the finger at local authorities as a bottle-neck in the rollout of infrastructure which will fuel the digital economy.

Ericsson upgrades Radio System, partners with Juniper on backhaul and buys CENX

Ahead of MWC Americas Ericsson has embarked on a frenzy of announcements around its core product offering.

FCC Chairman attacks social media giants calling for transparency laws

Ahead of this week’s interrogation of the social media giants by Senators, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has penned his thoughts including the introduction of transparency laws to squeeze out explanations on how algorithms work.

Ciena Buys DonRiver to Boost Blue Planet Portfolio

A DonRiver team of specialized OSS software, integration, and consulting experts will form a specialized services group within the Blue Planet Organization.

Industry Voices—Lowenstein’s View: Expectations, hopes for MWCA

Check out the key themes expected at next week's MWCA.

Vapor IO Takes Control of Project Volutus, Secures Series C

The Project Volutus joint venture with Crown Castle will now be fully under control of Vapor IO, which will now handle the deployment and service management through its Kinetic Edge platform.

Autotalks launches global V2X chipset

Autotalks announced the launch of its Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) chipset that is capable of supporting both DSRC and cellular’s C-V2X.

Cisco SVP Romanski Joins PE Firm Siris Capital

Romanski is the third high-level Cisco executive to leave the company in the past month.

Ericsson Bypasses Cisco, Partners With Juniper on Optical Transport

Cisco’s optical transport products overlap with Ericsson making Juniper the better partner.

SeaChange to Cut Staff Again

Latest restructuring to cause staff reductions across all functions and geographic areas.

Unicom, Telecom Merger: A 5G Bull in a China Shop

While still unconfirmed, Chinese government plans to merge the country's number two and three mobile operators would be regrettable.

5G – Gee Whiz or G-Force?

5G looks to be much more than just a way to deliver faster wireless access… it could lead to a new way of designing, deploying and operating communication networks.

Comcast Streams More OTT Fare to X1 Boxes

Comcast integrates ESPN3, ACC Network Extra and SEC Network+ to connected set-top box platform.

Eurobites: Nigeria Has MTN in Its Crosshairs Again – This Time for a $2B Tax Bill

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: BT makes SNAP decision on SD-WAN; Telefónica Deutschland is sweet on Netcracker; DT's Langheim gets new US board role.

Turkcell Boss Sets Out Winning Digital Playbook

Do not fear the data flood, was the message from Turkcell boss Kaan Terzioglu at Huawei's Operations Transformation Forum in Munich this week.

Ciena Bolsters Blue Planet With OSS Acquisition

Ciena is adding to its network management automation capabilities with the acquisition of inventory specialist DonRiver.

Sprint & Ericsson to Develop Global IoT Core, OS Platform

Ambitious project promises global core and operating system that will support IoT on 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G.

ADVA: Ensemble Is Putting the 'M' in MANO

The new version of ADVA's virtualization software suite adds new features, including zero-touch provisioning, service chain monitoring and multi-level security.

Ericsson Links 5G Hands With Juniper & ECI, Snubs Cisco & Ciena

Swedish equipment vendor prefers the alternatives to a couple of long-standing partners in a 5G setting, and adds new features to its '5G-ready' baseband platform.

Limies, Yanks, Kiwis, Ozzies and Mounties have another crack at killing encryption

In a carefully worded statement, the governments of the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand have reiterated their desire to crack encryption and snoop on citizens.

Data Transfer Project could cut AWS cloud dominance – Equinix

Amazon’s cloud business, AWS, might be romping ahead of the pretenders in the market share rankings, but the progressing Data Transfer Project could see this lead eroded and the rise of more niche players.

Facebook surge shows how quickly India is embracing digital

Few countries can claim to have embraced the digital world with the speed India has, and Facebook is hoovering up the cash as a result.

Verizon silent on reports that wireless chief Dunne could leave

Verizon officials declined to comment on a new report that said the head of the company's wireless business may leave.

Boost, others to survive Sprint/T-Mobile merger, executives say

T-Mobile executives promised that the combined Sprint/T-Mobile will not eliminate any of its prepaid brands.

DT turns to biometrics for authentication and fraud detection

Deutsche Telekom has selected Nuance’s biometric technology to help the team offer customers simplified authentication processes when calling the customer service hotline.

Samsung set to refocus its smartphone strategy on mid-tier devices

The head of Samsung’s mobile communications division has said he’s going to focus on mid-range devices for the introduction of new features from now on.

OCF’s IoTivity update includes increased security

OCF has updated its IoTivity specification to enable more smart home IoT devices to communicate securely with one another.

Apcela makes a play into IT enterprise space

Application delivery company Apcela has had several evolutionary turns throughout its history, but now it's firmly focused on the enterprise sector.

San Marino set to be first European 5G state – TIM

Telecom Italia has announced it expects 5G services to be greenlight in San Marino by the end of the year, making it the first 5G state in Europe. If only they had the handsets.

School in Scotland using pureLiFi's system

South Ayrshire Council’s Kyle Academy is now the first school in the world to pilot a LiFi network within its classrooms.

FCC to wade into local guidelines for small cell build-outs

FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr announced local deployment guidelines that the agency plans to implement to speed the rollout of small cells.

OSS Vendor Comarch Works for Telefónica, Vodafone, and Deutsche Telekom

Comarch recently won a contract with South Korean 5G operator LG U+ to replace its OSS stack.

Ericsson strikes deal to buy CENX

Ericsson will beef up its OSS and managed service portfolios with the addition of CENX's cloud-native service assurance and automation capabilities.

Storj Labs Offers Unique Model for Cloud Storage

The company's open source partner program will divert revenue to organizations or individuals that allow blockchain-based encrypted storage on personal devices.

Iliad share price continues to tumble as competition heats up

The share price of French telecoms wild-child Iliad has continued to tumble as lukewarm results fail to impress investors looking for a spark in the broadband business.

Ericsson Snaps Up Service Assurance Firm CENX In Preparation for 5G

Verizon is a CENX customer. CENX employees, including new CEO Edward Kennedy, will become part of Ericsson when the deal closes this quarter.

DoCoMo, SK Telecom leading the way in 5G readiness: report

A new study from Juniper Research identified five operators leading its 5G positioning index: NTT DoCoMo, SK Telecom, LG U+, KT Telecom and Softbank.

Nokia warns that Trump’s China tariffs could impede U.S. 5G rollouts

Nokia said President Trump's tariffs on components from China could impede operators’ rollout of 5G network technology in the United States.

Ericsson, Intel complete 39 GHz 5G data call

Intel and Ericsson completed a 3GPP New Radio 5G-compliant live data call with Intel’s RF mm-Wave chip and Ericsson Radio System commercial equipment.

Fortinet Adds Network Access Control for IoT Security to Its Security Fabric

The company acquired NAC vendor Bradford Networks earlier this summer. Today it’s essentially rebranding Bradford’s technology as FortiNAC.

West Midlands bags UK 5G test-bed prize

The West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) has been selected as the region for the UK’s first multi-city 5G test bed with trials set to kick-off next year.

T-Mobile Forming 'Wireless First' TV Strategy

Claims its 5G network, aided by Sprint merger, will also enable T-Mobile to pitch an in-home TV/broadband bundle.

Bye Bye Cisco Video Software, Hello Synamedia

Brand, product focus for emerging company revealed as Permira prepares to seal deal for Cisco division and divulge more details at IBC.

Feger: F5 Seeks a Bigger Service Provider Play

Returning to its roots as a software company, F5 aims to aid service providers with virtualization and delivering enterprise applications anywhere.

Ericsson Adds Automation Smarts With CENX Acquisition

Ericsson acquired a minority stake in automation expert CENX in 2012 and now will add the vendor-neutral service assurance specialist's technology to its own network automation and orchestration efforts.

Charter's Spectrum Mobile Goes Full Market

Charter adds iPhone models to device mix as cable operator moves past this summer's soft launch of mobile offering that's being bundled with broadband.

A Clear Path to Blockchain in Telecom

Using blockchain to speed the automation of one of the trickiest areas in telecom – inter-carrier settlements – seems to be showing promise as startups emerge to lead the way.

Colt Ramps Its Blockchain Efforts, Explores SDN Federation Use Case

Network operator sees multiple opportunities to improve inter-carrier settlement management, SDN interoperability and more using blockchain technology.

Eurobites: Svendsen Quits Telenor Norway, Prompts Reshuffle

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: 5G fever sweeps Switzerland, Italy and the UK; Elisa spies Chinese TV opportunity; Agama targets OTT providers.

Operations at the Edge: More Locations, More Problems

While more locations – perhaps orders of magnitude more – presumably mean better service performance, it also means more devices that someone needs to install, monitor, maintain and troubleshoot.

Orange Plans '5G Plus Automation' RFP This Year

French telco will issue a request for proposal for 5G equipment before the year is through, and says ONAP support and automation will be key requirements.

Iliad 'Disappointed' by H1 Customer Losses

French operator turns its attention to more lucrative segments of the market as rivals fight back on low-cost deals.

Ronan Dunne said to be in the running for the BT CEO gig

Current Verizon exec and former O2 UK boss Ronan Dunne is reported to be one of the people BT is considering to replace Gavin Patterson.

UK media and telco industries demand more red tape for social media content

A coalition of UK media and telco businesses have written a letter demanding the UK government introduce an independent regulatory oversight of the content carried over social networks.

California defies FCC and Trump by passing tough net neutrality laws

The state versus federal argument looks like it is heading towards full-throttle as California passes what it describes as the toughest net neutrality laws in the country.

Ericsson gets more Liberty Global managed service work

Ericsson’s PR efforts currently seem devoted to promoting its managed services division and a pan-European fixed line gig with Liberty Global presents some low-hanging fruit.

Huawei's Continuous Innovation in Ultra-Broadband Transmission

Since Huawei's 100G solution became commercially available, it has been widely applied on operator networks around the world. Here are some of the success stories.

VMworld 2018 in Photos: Gelsinger's Body Art Revealed

Tattoos, 80s nostalgia and Game of Thrones characters were highlights of VMware's sizzling annual Las Vegas customer/analyst confab.

Verizon Shows the Shape of 5G to Come

Verizon gives Light Reading a taste of some upcoming 5G apps.

Eurobites: EU Gives Green Light to Hutchison's Wind Tre Deal

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Ericsson extends managed services deal with Liberty Global; Sky invests in startup discovery; Telia Norway calls time on 3G; BT lands NHS gig.

Huawei's OTF 2018: Time to Go Digital

At the Operations Transformation Forum 2018, operators and industry experts explained how the shift to digital platforms and new operations processes are essential for 5G.