5 Days of 5G Firsts: Ericsson, Nokia, ZTE, Samsung

Within a span of 24 hours, Ericsson and Nokia both claimed to have 16 commercial 5G deals with publicly named service providers.

Comcast seeks new experimental CBRS license

Comcast's latest application for an experimental license in the 3.5 GHz band suggests it’s got more up its sleeve than it wants anybody to know.

Quantenna acquired by ON Semiconductor for $1B

Wi-Fi chip vendor Quantenna will be acquired by ON Semiconductor in a $1.07 billion cash deal. Quantenna shares rose 17.5% this week on the news.

C Spire calls into question T-Mobile’s rural broadband plans

C Spire has told the FCC it doesn’t buy T-Mobile’s plan to bring low-cost fixed wireless service to rural consumers.

TDC hoovers up Danish spectrum in latest auction

The Danish Energy Agency has completed its latest spectrum auction, with TDC running away with the majority of the available assets.

Altice still under pressure to make Europe work

Revenues are down across the continent, but telecoms group Altice is pointing to healthy mobile acquisitions in France as a glimmer of hope.

April Fools! T-Mobile installs phone-charging purple booths on city streets

The temperature-controlled booths provide T-Mobile customers with phone charging and a big screen for internet browsing.

Telecoms industry set to finally get the recognition it deserves

Hard working telecoms industry professionals are set to finally emerge from decades of bleak anonymity thanks to the new, improved Glotel Awards.

Defiant Huawei reports 20% revenue growth

Despite coming under heavy political pressure over the last couple of months, Huawei has reported $107 billion in total revenues, 20% year-on-year.

Despite U.S. security concerns, Huawei profits increase in 2018

While Huawei has been dogged by security concerns by the U.S. and other countries, it posted a 25% increase in annual profit last year.

Software Flaws, Security Vulnerabilities Persist in Huawei Equipment, UK Says

U.K. authorities have “limited confidence in Huawei’s ability to understand the content of any given build or in their ability to perform true root cause analysis of identified issues.”

SD-WAN Requirements Evolve Past MPLS Replacement, Cost Savings

As SD-WAN matures it will need to meet the requirements of the changing enterprise, which include multi-cloud environments and integrated security and analytics.

Kubernetes Kubectl CLI Tool Stung by 'High' Severity Security Flaw

If compromised, the flaw could allow an attacker to write files to any path on the user’s machine.

Microsoft Opens Azure Security Center for IoT

It connects Azure cloud security, visibility, and analysis tools with the company’s Azure IoT Hub and adds new capabilities on top.

Microsoft, SAP, Adobe ODI Program Adds Advisors, Quasi-Availability Details

The initiative targets interoperability and data exchange between Microsoft’s Dynamics 365, SAP’s C/4HANA and S/4HANA platforms, and Adobe’s Experience Cloud.

Deutsche Telekom tees up new renewable energy targets

Germany's Deutsche Telekom said on Friday that it plans to cover all of its electricity needs with renewable energies by 2021.

Microsoft, Huawei Fix Security Issue in Huawei Laptops

While Microsoft gives Huawei an attaboy for quick response to the security flaw, it's not a good look for Huawei.

Opponents Rally Against Trump's Possible 'Socialist' 5G Network

President Trump may well be moving closer toward a proposal – pushed by Rivada Networks and others – that would have the US government build a wholesale 5G network. Meantime, opponents to the idea are beginning to ramp up their own efforts.

With a Little Help From US, Huawei Is Morphing Into a Devices Business

The US backlash against Huawei has been good news for the company's smartphone business in the vast Chinese market.

Silicon Dust to Snuff OTT-TV Service Linked to Omniverse

Shutdown of HDHomerun Premium TV, an inexpensive OTT-TV service for cord-cutters, arrives in wake of copyright lawsuit lobbed at Omniverse One World Television.

Eurobites: Iliad Chairman On the Hook for Insider Trading

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Altice France guides for growth; Ericsson's Ekholm has a dig over spectrum sales; CityFibre heads for the Highlands.

Huawei's Hedge Against Supply Disruption Hits 2018 Cash Flow

Stockpiling of components, in the event of a US ban, tore into the Chinese vendor's operating cash flow last year, despite a bumper set of results.

WiCipedia: The AI Diversity Struggle, Companies Aren't Prioritizing Equality & New-Mom Decisions

This week in our WiC roundup: Hopperx1 brings the ladies of tech together once again; IBM tackles gender inequality and bias in AI; new moms have big decisions to make when it comes to taking time off work, and more.

Why Android TV Is Catching On With Pay-TV Operators

Enabling in-app upgrades and transactions without paying a tax to Google has made Android TV's 'Operator Tier' particularly attractive, industry sources say.

Why Cable Automation Is Taking Off

Broadband Success Partners' David Strauss shares highlights of his firm's fresh research about the cable industry's growing forays into network automation.

Podcast: Into the Omniverse

Forget Apple. There's no wilder story in the world of pay-TV than the controversy surrounding Omniverse One World Television. In this podcast, we discuss how the company turned up on the cable industry's radar, scrapped with content owners and has what it said is a 100-year contract to distribute pay-TV channels.

What metric determines who ‘wins’ the race to 5G?

Chetan Sharma looks at 25 different variables across five different dimensions for 16 major markets to see where countries are in their 5G journey.

NCTC queues up Broadband Solutions – Access program

The National Cable Television Cooperative (NCTC) is launching a program that's designed to keep its members' broadband services up to speed.

Spotify’s ‘Duo’ tariff gives a whiff of what’s to come

Sharing accounts might be the norm in the world of content streaming platforms, but Spotify’s new ‘Duo’ tariff might be a sign of changing attitudes.

Facebook faces hyper-targeted advertising lawsuit

The US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has lodged a lawsuit against Facebook, challenging the hyper-targeted big data model which has made OTTs billions over the years.

Sprint adds 2 new device management solutions for businesses

Sprint is growing its device management portfolio for business mobility solutions.

DT CEO moans as bidding in German 5G auction tops €1 billion

Just for a change operators are moaning about the amount they have to pay for licensed spectrum, arguing that leaves less cash for infrastructure.

Despite a $1 billion loss ZTE is seeing light at the end of the tunnel

The Chinese telecom vendor ZTE reported a total annual net loss of over $1 billion from its business in 2018 but is foreseeing returning to profit in Q1 2019.

Amazon Web Services rolls out App Mesh at conference

Among a raft of announcements Wednesday at its AWS Summit, Amazon Web Services announced the general availability of its AWS App Mesh.

Sprint drops Target as a retail sales channel

The move will likely be a win for reseller Consumer Cellular, which also sells its service at Target.

Swiss carrier Sunrise to launch 5G, debunks 5G fears

The company has released a 5G mobile technology fact sheet to address public concerns around the safety of 5G networks.

BT mulls redundancies for a quarter of staff – report

BT is considering further redundancies to increase profitability at the firm, with 25,000 jobs, a quarter of its employees, under threat.

U.K. says Huawei equipment has major security flaws

U.K. government officials said that Huawei has not addressed security concerns in its products and has failed to implement a promised cybersecurity overhaul.

Orange invests in French DevOps startup Cycloid

Orange Digital Ventures, Orange's early-stage investment fund, announced today that it has invested $3.4 million in French DevOps startup Cycloid.

Microsoft, Adobe and SAP hit gas pedal on Open Data Initiative

Microsoft, SAP and Adobe announced they were getting down to the brass tacks of their Open Data Initiative by adding new members.

AT&T and Ericsson use ONAP for network slicing

The network slicing demo will show how quality of service can be guaranteed for “slices” of the network that are dedicated to premium users.

UK questions Huawei security credibility

The oversight board responsible for mitigating the risk associated with Huawei products has released a new report which questions whether using equipment from the vendor is the best idea.

Amazon to Create 800 Jobs in Austin for AWS, Amazon Business

The company plans to hire in the fields of software and hardware engineering, research science, and cloud computing.

Cisco Patches Bugs Galore, Says 2 Routers Still Vulnerable to Attacks

The vulnerability could allow a remote attacker to execute arbitrary commands on the underlying Linux shell as root.

SNS: 5GAA will get waiver for C-V2X in 5.9 GHz band

Despite the debate between C-V2X and 802.11p/DSRC and regulatory challenges, analysts predict that by the end of 2022, V2X will be worth $1.2 billion.

China 'Mega City' Hosts 4G/5G cRAN Test Network

Nokia and China Unicom claim this is the first network with 4G and 5G running on the same cloud infrastructure.

24 GHz auction surpasses $1.5B in bids

Round 29 of the FCC’s 24 GHz auction closed with $1.59 billion in gross proceeds, with the nation’s big cities garnering millions of dollars in bids.

Packet, Ampere Take On AWS With Bare Metal Arm Servers

Amazon also offers Arm-based compute instances in its public cloud, but Packet and Ampere say theirs is more powerful.

More Than 100 Operators Have Launched LPWAN Globally, Says GSA

Operators are showing increasing signs of launching both NB-IoT and LTE-M, although NB-IoT currently dominates.

Verizon to Merge Wireless, Wireline Customer Loyalty Programs

One of the first things that Verizon plans to do under its new consumer/business corporate structure that goes into effect next week is to merge its customer loyalty programs that are currently separated between wireless and wireline customers.

Cable's Performance in Mobile Fails to Impress Wall Street

Investors had hoped that Comcast and Charter might pose a significant threat to the likes of AT&T and Verizon in mobile. Newly reduced expectations from Wall Street indicate those hopes haven't panned out.

Memory Pricing Improvements Aid Arris-CommScope Deal

Softening pricing on key set-top box components could goose device margins and put a bit more financial luster on the proposed merger, analyst says.

Taking a Pulse on Network Automation

Automation offers the best hope for managing today's vastly complex networks – so what's the hold-up?

BT Taking Cloud to 100 Locations in Edge Shake-Up

BT takes a big step toward a more distributed cloud as it prepares for the arrival of new edge services.

UK Security Report Piles Pressure on Huawei

The annual report from the UK's Huawei Cyber Security Evaluation Centre (HCSEC) will not make for happy reading in Shenzhen.

Eurobites: Orange Invests €3M in DevOps Startup

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Orange tackles fake news; Liquid Telecom Kenya chooses Nokia for OTN/DWDM upgrade; Trondheim intends to be a 5G early adopter.

Telstra Preps Service Catalog in Bid to Be Telco AWS

Telstra wants to reinvent itself as an AWS of the telco world, and is calling on vendors to be more supportive.

Securing 5G Networks: Making Sense of Security Service Requirements

The good news is that service providers understand which tools and capabilities they will need to not only successfully implement 5G security services, but also differentiate them.

Telstra 'Herding Cats' in Bid to Be Telco AWS

Telstra wants to reinvent itself as an AWS of the telco world, and is calling on vendors to be more supportive.

Will 5G Cure Juniper's Telco Flu?

Juniper hopes 5G capex investment will soothe its financial aches and pains.

Amazon’s Werner Vogels: ‘Dance Like Nobody’s Watching. Encrypt Like Everyone Is’

AWS built encryption into nearly all of its 165 cloud services, Vogels said. “Make use of it.”

Google weighs in with its own AI ethics ideas

Seemingly not happy to let the bureaucrats and legislators dictate the ethical landscape of artificial intelligence, Google has launched its own initiative to join the debate.

Cisco tunes up early-stage startup investor Decibel

Cisco wants to get a jump on early-stage startups by investing in a new venture capital firm called Decibel.

T-Mobile Austria launches 5G network with 25 base stations

T-Mobile says it will be investing around €1 billion until 2021 to ensure that Austria has powerful mobile and landline broadband infrastructure.

AT&T will start selling Magic Leap AR headsets next week

AT&T is showcasing Magic Leap’s augmented reality (AR) tech in a series of immersive experiences.

European Commission weighs in on 5G security

The European Commission has released a set of operational recommendations for 5G security in Europe.

Hyperscale Operators Are Driving Colocation Market Growth

This follows data from Synergy Research Group that hyperscale operators increased their capex by 48 percent in 2018.

CBA appoints Pitsch to lead advocacy

The C-Band Alliance (CBA) has appointed Peter Pitsch as head of advocacy and government affairs, replacing Preston Padden.

F5 takes SaaS to the cloud with AWS Marketplace

F5 Networks is making a nimble move to the cloud with Wednesday's launch of its F5 Cloud Services on Amazon Web Services Marketplace.

FTC launches investigation for privacy practices in US

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has issued orders to seven US broadband providers seeking non-public information to assess privacy practises.

EC Wants 5G Security Risks to be Assessed, But Does Not Ban Huawei

The European Commission is seeking unity among member states on future 5G security, and leaves any supplier bans to their own discretion.

Smartphone segment in for another rough year – CCS Insight

Analyst firm CCS Insight is predicting the smartphone segment could be in for another year of drudge, with year-on-year shipments forecast to decline by 3%.

DoJ rumoured to be half-convinced by T-Mobile/Sprint 5G argument

The anti-trust chief in the Department of Justice is said to be receptive to T-Mobile and Sprint’s argument that the combined company will improve America’s competitiveness in 5G.

Europe officially says no to US on Huawei ban… for the moment

The European Commission has unveiled its recommendations for security mechanisms for the 5G era, and Huawei lives to fight another day, at least for the next couple of months.

Rural group lobbies for FCC-led C-band transition

Nine entities with ties to rural broadband are urging the FCC to oversee the transition of C-band spectrum rather than allow a private sale.

Barefoot Networks Innovates at the Nexus of 5G and Telemetry

Programmable chip and analytics software are helping deliver on the 5G promises of lower latency and higher bandwidth with segment routing and in-band network telemetry.

US Operators Encounter Limits of 5G on mmWave Spectrum

Industry analysts remain convinced that operators and the global ecosystem of vendors will eventually overcome the challenges of mmWave for 5G.

Edge Companies Launch Open Research Group, Publish Second Report

“Companies that want to join to pay a $75,000 annual membership fee, and 100 percent goes to funding this open research,” said Vapor IO CMO Matt Trifiro.

Microsoft Rolls Out Edge Pay-As-You-Go Hardware, Compute, and Storage

If this sounds familiar, it is. Amazon Web Services launched its edge storage and compute device in 2016.

Automation Focus Shifts From Cost to Customer

Faced with new Internet and cost challenges, operators are increasingly presenting automation as a means of improving the customer experience.

EdgeConneX: We're Not for Sale & We're Doing Just Fine

EdgeConneX said it's seeing growing demand for edge computing from 5G and IoT. And the company isn't alone. Players ranging from Google to Equinix to Vapor IO are eyeing how best they will play at the edge.

ZTE Says It's Back in the Black

After an annus horribilis, Chinese vendor ZTE is expecting to report a net profit for the first quarter of 2019.

Rumors of Major BT Job Cuts Should Not Be a Shock

Bloomberg reports talks to cut 25% of the UK operator's workforce – no one should be shocked.

Cox Readies Cloud DVR Rollout

Cox, a Comcast X1 syndication partner, expects to deploy the new offering later this year.

Eurobites: EU Sets Out Its 5G Security Stall

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: BT and ADVA make quantum leap; Openet rings Canada's Bell; T-Mobile Austria activates 5G.

Telefónica on Mission to Kill SDN as We Know It

Spanish operator wants to get rid of its domain-specific controllers and thinks standardization efforts will make that possible.

Cisco Launches Decibel to Make Some Early-Stage Startup Noise

Decibel will invest in very young enterprise startups, to help 30-year-old Cisco stay fresh.

Delivering Apple's Promise: A Premium Streaming Service

The launch of Apple TV+ assumes great broadband service, and that buzz may help savvy service providers connect with new customers.

OpenDaylight celebrates 6th birthday with Neon release

Open Daylight celebrated its sixth birthday with a new release, which is called Neon, for its SDN controller.

TNS: 10% of scam and fraud robocalls come from Tier 1 carriers

While carriers like AT&T and T-Mobile account for 75% of call volume, most robocalls are likely not originating from phone numbers owned by them.

Huawei P30 continues with photography play

Huawei has continued with the photography plug as the worlds’ number two smartphone manufacturer launches the P30 Series.

Bahrain surges forward with 5G innovation hub ambitions

The Kingdom of Bahrain has announced itself onto the global 5G stage, claiming to be one of the first countries globally to provide commercial 5G services by June 2019.

Ericsson launches Industry Connect LTE platform

Ericsson has launched a cellular connectivity solution that it says will help accelerate the Industry 4.0 digital transformation.

Broadband Forum debuts BNG Disaggregation project

To help create a more agile network, the Broadband Forum is launching the Broadband Network Gateway (BNG) Disaggregation project.

T-Mobile enters mobile point-of-sales market with GoPoint

T-Mobile is taking on Square, Clover and others with the launch of its own point-of-sales platform.

SoftIron bows storage router for Ceph

London-based startup SoftIron is making a bold claim for its HyperDrive Storage Router for enterprises that are using Ceph.

Cisco, Sakoda Team Up on Early-Stage VC Firm Decibel

Decibel already invested in two startups: Blameless, a site reliability engineering (SRE) company that launched last week. And in February, it participated in security company Cmd’s $15 million Series B.

Hybrid cloud revenues drive Red Hat's Q4 results

In a mixed bag of fourth-quarter and full-year results, hybrid cloud was a bright spot for Red Hat's earnings on Monday.

Kubernetes 1.14 Adds Windows and Storage Support, Is Light on Security

The Kubernetes community does not view security as something tied to specific updates and instead is “something to be continually evaluated and improved.”

Pentagon Embarks on 5G Without Huawei

The Pentagon is planning for a series of experiments later this year to learn more about propagation, latency, interference, and the equipment necessary to power 5G.

China Set to Invest $58B in 5G in Two Years, GSMA Intelligence says

China’s three mobile operators, China Mobile, China Telecom, and China Unicom, aim to be among the frontrunners in the 5G era.

Plume hits the UK market

Mesh wifi specialist Plume has launched itself onto the UK market, brining with it a new service which aims to make consumer IOT more secure.

Samsung warns profit could half on weak chip and display demand

The world leader in smartphones and chips has released a profit warning for Q1 before it is due to announce the results next month. Analysts estimate its operating profit could halve from a year ago.

Cloud Visibility Is a Top Priority That Companies Can’t Quite Achieve

New research from Ixia and Dimensional Research indicates that while enterprises are rapidly increasing their cloud workloads, they are unable to accurately monitor the public cloud.

Kaspersky Labs unveils another supply-chain threat

While the security vendor has not revealed all the details just yet, a new cybersecurity incident demonstrates how dangerous it can be to focus too acutely on a single threat in the ecosystem.

DT finally reveals details of its fixed network upgrades

Juniper Networks’ BNG—currently used by Deutsche Telekom (DT)—could be under some threat of lost business with DT’s open source plans.

OTT Has Become a Copycat League

Lacking in the innovation or disruption departments, Apple's new video playbook looks like a carbon copy of everyone else's.

The Journey From 4G to 5G Will Begin With 1 Millisecond

The transition from 3G to 4G was challenging because operators had to block off chunks of spectrum specifically for the move. With 5G and the use of 'dynamic spectrum sharing,' the migration should happen much more fluidly.

Oracle Swings the Layoffs Axe

Oracle is cutting up to 14,000 people, 10% of its staff, according to reports. While the company says the layoffs are part of the shift to the cloud, cloud staff are among those feeling the axe's edge.

US Military Plans 5G Tests, Likely With Nokia, Ericsson Equipment

Meanwhile, tensions ratchet up between the US and Europe over whether Huawei equipment poses security risk.

Enghouse Puts Up $42.1M for Video Tech Specialist Espial

Deal follows recent M&A wave in the tough global video and pay-TV market.

C Spire's Bye Says Farewell

C Spire president Stephen Bye is leaving to head a new company focused on in-building wireless networks. As a result, C Spire's longtime CEO Hu Meena in taking control of C Spire's wired and wireless offerings.

US 5G Auction Races Past $1B

Bids on the 24GHz 5G auction are now up to $1,409,902,875.

Apple Showtime Feels Like a Re-Run

Analysts are stumbling out of the auditorium after Apple's big TV reveal, and they are not overly impressed at what they have seen.

Nokia 'Compliance' Issue Immaterial, Still Top 5G Pick – Analyst

An MKM partners analyst thinks the compliance issue Nokia flagged in its annual report will cost less than €125 million ($141 million) and still prefers Nokia to Ericsson in the 5G market.

Eurobites: Nokia Lands Full-On 5G Deal With Austria's A1

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Ericsson targets Industry 4.0; UK broadband's big beasts must do better; Tele2 restructures; Telia helps with smart-city planning.

The Telecoms.com Podcast: Cloud Gaming, UK Infrastructure & Huawei

This week: Jamie, Scott and Ray chew over Google's new cloud gaming venture, UK infrastructure developments and, yes, Huawei...

Apple announces original content, a credit card and a news subscription service

Apple’s big services event didn’t disappoint, with a bunch of potentially disruptive launches together with new levels of hyperbole and clapping.

$3.4 billion Inmarsat acquisition hype turns out to be true

British satellite communications company Inmarsat has been the centre of numerous acquisition stories in recent years, and this one is actually progressing.

5G has already yielded 12 phones and five chipset vendors – GSA

The Global (mobile) Suppliers Association has launched what it claims is the first global database of commercial 5G devices.

Movius raises $45M to scale multiline mobility platform

With $45 million in new funding, the company is gearing up to tackle enterprise-class customers.

Ofcom outlines plans for 2019/20

With the country on the verge of realising the promise of the digital economy, the pressure is still on Ofcom to make sure a fair and sustainable landscape is developing. Here, the team outlines its plans for the next twelve months.

BT taps into Adva's synchronization technology for 5G rollout

Adva announced on Monday that BT is using its synchronization technology to help with the rollout of its 5G service across the U.K.

Platform9 and Intersect team up on unified cloud services

Platform9 announced a partnership with research firm Intersect to provide SaaS-hybrid cloud services throughout Australia and New Zealand.

AT&T’s 5G E slower than some 4G networks, says study

5G E customers receive speeds that are in line with customers using the same phones on other carriers’ 4G LTE Advanced networks.

Tarana Wireless raises $60M for gigabit-capable FWA solution

Tarana claims its Gigabit 1 fixed wireless access solution can deliver gigabit speeds over non-line-of-sight connections.

Broadband access equipment revenue increases in Q4: report

The market was bullish in last year's fourth quarter for broadband access equipment revenue, according to a report, but CCAP spending declined.

Pivotal, Gravitational, and Google Water Kubernetes Expansion

A recent Rightscale enterprise survey found 48 percent of enterprises use Kubernetes to manage their container deployments.

US set to lose Huawei propaganda game in Europe

The US has been investing a lot of energy and time attempting to prove the value of banning Huawei, but it seems a failed quest as the European Commission readies itself to rule out a ban.

Huawei CSO Pushes Back Against Espionage Accusations

Andy Purdy argues that the best approach to security is to require a diversity of suppliers and clear divisions of responsibility.

Which pans UK broadband leaders for woeful service

Consumer publication Which has slammed the UK broadband scene, pointing towards the unacceptable and consistently poor performance of market share leaders for customer service and performance.

Nokia Consolidates Its Position as A1’s 5G Vendor in Austria

A1 rivals have so far been using China-based vendors ZTE and Huawei.

Oracle Reportedly Axes Hundreds of Jobs, Insists Its Cloud ‘Future Is Bright’

The layoffs follow the recent departures of two top cloud executives. Both quit Oracle to join Google.

Google’s streaming game platform Stadia has implications for 5G

While most gamers have relied on their wired internet connection, cloud gaming opens the door to more gaming over wireless connections.

Toob joins the UK alt-net revolution

Portsmouth start-up Toob is the latest to cash in on the consumers fibre appetite with £75 million of initial funding, backed by Amber Infrastructure.

Apple Flips On 'Channels,' Teases Subscription Streaming Service

Alongside aggregation of on-demand and live TV services, premium Apple TV+ service will stream slate of ad-free original series.

Cloud Usage Drives Red Hat Revenue Growth

Red Hat reports fourth quarter revenue $879 million, up 14% year-over-year, with fiscal 2019 revenue at $3.4 billion, up 15%, crediting growth to enterprise migration to hybrid cloud.

Verizon Is 'First & Only' with 5G? Advertising Arbiter Says Nope

The Better Business Bureau's National Advertising Division got its first 5G-related case, and it ruled that Verizon can't claim to have the nation's first and only 5G network.

Eurobites: Inmarsat Agrees to $3.4B Takeover Bid

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: new UK FTTH player raises £75 million; EU encourages data sharing, says no to US-led Huawei gear ban; Abu Dhabi hub targets UK startups.

Verizon Taps NFL for Help With 5G Innovation

Verizon and the NFL launch a new "innovation partnership" geared toward creating new 5G products and services for football fans. But the lack of details around the effort is telling.

Charter, US Ignite Spark Smart Cities Project

Spectrum Enterprise unit and non-profit group team on exploration and rollout of apps and services that use mix of wired and wireless connectivity options underpinned by a data management platform.

In Search of Optical Networking's 'Holy Grail'

The optical networking industry is at another inflection point, writes James Kisner, and chalice some companies drink from next could point the way to everlasting revenue growth.

Eurobites: Inmarsat Agrees to £3.4B Takeover Bid

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: new UK FTTH player raises £75 million; EU encourages data sharing, says no to US-led Huawei gear ban; Abu Dhabi hub targets UK startups.

Vodafone UK Threatens Legal Challenge Over Next 5G Auction

A dispute over the UK's next auction of 5G spectrum could delay the rollout of 5G networks and turn ecosystem players off the UK market, according to Vodafone UK's technology boss.

Juniper's $405M Mist Buy: AI, WiFi, Management & More

Though Mist Systems provides managed WiFi, Juniper said the company stands out by delivering network simplification and automation to enterprises and service providers.

Wooing the Video Customers of Tomorrow

Consumers are increasingly seeking simple, easily searchable and personalized viewing experiences anywhere, everywhere and all in one place.