Friday, March 20, 2020

COVID-19 dictates where dealers stay open

Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint shut the doors on some of their stores this week in response to the COVID-19 outbreak, but what about the dealers/authorized resellers who sell their phones in independently run shops across the country?
           

Amazon Web Services kicks in $20M to help combat COVID-19

Amazon Web Services (AWS) announced Friday that it's making an initial $20 million investment for a new diagnostic development program to fight COVID-19. With current testing results taking a day or more, AWS is putting its considerable resources behind finding and developing faster results.
           

AT&T decides now’s not a good time for share buybacks

Not too long ago (in a galaxy far, far away), the stock market was flying high and activist investor Elliott Management was strong-arming AT&T to buy back millions of its own shares of stock. In this way, the total number of AT&T shares would decrease, raising the price so that investors like Elliott could make a killing.
           

BT sells off some of its Global unit in Latin America

BT has shed some of its domestic operations and infrastructure in 16 Latin America countries as part of an overhaul of its Global business unit. BT has sold those assets to CIH Telecommunications Americas, but said the two companies agreed not to disclose the purchase price of the deal that was struck this month.
           

5G must overcome hurdles for enterprises

5G has always been cast as a network technology that will revolutionize the enterprise by making factories smarter, healthcare more available, and transportation more efficient. And now that commercial 5G networks are becoming more pervasive, enterprises are beginning to better understand what the technology can do. (FierceWireless is hosting an online panel Monday, March 23 entitled "5G in the Verticals: How Can Enterprises Best Use 5G?")
           

Thursday, March 19, 2020

Cisco Donates OpenRoaming as WiFi Standard

OpenRoaming, a protocol developed by Cisco that enables zero-touch provisioning and onboarding for WiFi, has been donated to the Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA) as an open industry standard. The agreement calls for WBA to take full control of the development, promotion, and administration of the technology. WBA will also serve as the root certificate authority responsible for securing authentication traffic on the back end of the network, according to Cisco.
           

Microsoft Skins AWS in Forrester Cloud Ranking

Microsoft scored a razor-thin victory over larger rival Amazon Web Services (AWS) in Forrester Research’s latest ranking of public cloud providers in North America. However, AWS can wipe away those tears with the billions of dollars of additional revenue it generates compared to its smaller rival.
           

Enea Taps Ampere for Arm-based Edge uCPE

Enea announced a partnership with chipmaker Ampere to develop Arm-based universal CPE appliances for use in telecom and edge applications. Under the partnership, Enea will pair Ampere’s first-generation eMAG processors with its NFV Access platform, which provides an environment on which to run virtual network functions (VNFs) like those for SD-WAN.
           

WISPs catch a break in CBRS transition

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) took the heat off a lot of smaller fixed wireless service providers when it extended the deadline for certain licensees in the 3650-3700 MHz band to transition their existing Part 90 operations to the Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) band standards.
           

Dish lends spectrum to AT&T during COVID-19 pandemic

Dish is behaving magnanimously during the coronavirus pandemic to provide its unused spectrum to other carriers so that they can increase the capacity of their networks. Today, Dish said it will be lending 20 MHz of its AWS-4 (Band 66) and all of its 700 MHz spectrum to AT&T, starting immediately. Dish will provide the spectrum to AT&T at no cost for 60 days.
           

Altiostar: Open RAN, virtualization ‘not pie in the sky’

Citing what he calls “incomplete information” circulating among industry and U.S. policy makers, Altiostar’s Thierry Maupilé said he wants to clarify a few things about the movement to open RAN and virtualized networks: It’s not for tomorrow and the future, but for the here and now.
           

Some enterprise WAN managers slow to adopt zero trust security

Apparently, some enterprise WAN managers don't have a lot of trust (yet) in zero trust security measures, according to a report. While 50% of enterprise WAN managers said in a survey that they are adopting or considering zero trust security, only 8% have implemented it, according to market and consulting firm TeleGeography.
           

Preliminary 2019 results for Frontier include net loss of $6B

Frontier Communications said in a notification on Tuesday that its 10-K filing for fiscal 2019 with the Securities and Exchange Commission would be late. Frontier did release anemic preliminary results for last year on Tuesday, which could be subject to change once it completes its actual filing.
           

Wednesday, March 18, 2020

MEF Awards First Round of SD-WAN Service Provider Certifications

Comcast Business, Spectrum Enterprise, Telia Co., and PCCW Global this week became the first service providers to receive the MEF 3.0 SD-WAN services certification. Developed by MEF and first announced in November, the certification aims to help enterprises select an SD-WAN vendor or service provider.
           

Storj Labs Tardigrade: Live for the Taking

Storj Labs today announced general availability of its decentralized Tardigrade cloud storage service. Storj, pronounced “storage,” aptly named its platform after one of nature’s smallest – and arguably cutest – pioneers to colonize new environments, which are also known to be virtually indestructible.
           

Cloud RAN on Pace to Surpass Traditional RAN by 2022

Cloud or centralized radio access network (C-RAN) sites comprise less than half of all network deployments today, but C-RAN will capture the majority of deployments by 2022, according to data from Rethink Research, cited by Nokia. C-RAN site deployments are currently growing at a 23% compound annual growth rate, according to the analyst firm.
           

Charter won’t let employees work from home during COVID-19

A Charter systems engineer based in Denver challenged the company’s top brass last week over its refusal to let office employees work from home during the coronavirus pandemic. Nick Wheeler sent an email to a senior vice president and hundreds of employees saying, “Coming into the office now is pointlessly reckless. It’s also socially irresponsible,” according to TechCrunch, which first reported the news.
           

Raynovich: Bargains abound in tech and telco stocks

The technology, media, and telecom (TMT) industries, just like every industry, have been battered by a market selloff related to the spread of COVID-19 and the resultant economic slowdown. It's going to be a tough year. But just like all other market panics before it, this could be an opportunity to pick of the shares of quality companies at good prices.
           

Huawei rip & replace remains priority

Two weeks ago, Competitive Carriers Association (CCA) President and CEO Steve Berry was testifying before a U.S. Senate committee on 5G supply chain security and how CCA members need funds to “replace, then rip” as opposed to “rip and replace.” This week, he’s still talking about CCA members’ requirements for that program—but now they’re grappling with seemingly far greater problems from the coronavirus pandemic.
           

Four service providers earn MEF certification stripes for SD-WAN

Comcast Business, PCCW Global, Spectrum Enterprise and Telia Company are the first service providers to pass muster for MEF's SD-WAN certification process, which is administered by Spirent Communications. By gaining certification in MEF's pilot certification program, the four service providers proved their services comply with MEF's SD-WAN Service Attributes and Services (MEF 70) standard that was published last summer after two years of development.
           

Special report: How fiber feeds AT&T, CenturyLink and Verizon

Compared to some of the new-fangled technologies, fiber is old-school, but it's the connective tissue for most of the new services and applications. Whether it's fiber-to-the-premise or home, long-haul fiber, metro fiber rings, fiber to a cell tower or small cell, the world's networks increasingly rely on fiber.
           

Tuesday, March 17, 2020

DoCoMo 5G Service Gets Launch Date

Japan’s largest mobile operator NTT DoCoMo has thrown down that country’s first challenge in the 5G war, announcing plans to launch a commercial service on March 25. The move comes as Japan’s mobile telecom market is set for an explosion of 5G launches and welcomes in a new nationwide competitor.
           

Nutanix Scales Out on Objects Update

Nutanix added new bells and whistles to its object storage platform to improve management for object storage, big data and analytics applications, as well as tame unstructured data storage. 
           

HashiCorp Scores $175M Funding Round, $5B Valuation

HashiCorp raked in $175 million in a Series E funding round this week that propelled the company’s valuation to an astonishing $5.1 billion. However, despite that astronomical sum, company executives are focused on business as usual.
           

Telefónica Wades Into Open RAN Across Global Footprint

Telefónica today announced that it will deploy open radio access network (RAN) technology trials for 4G LTE and 5G in the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, and Brazil. The global operator, along with Vodafone, is leading the adoption of open RAN in Europe but many other carriers are following in kind, according to Chris Nicoll, principal analyst at ACG Research. 
           

Campus switch revenue up in 2019 but flat in second half: report

Driven in part by Cisco's Catalyst 9000 switches, the worldwide campus switch market grew 3% last year, but dipped significantly in the second half, according to a Dell'Oro Group report. Most of that second half softness was driven by North America and Europe, but campus switch revenue in China grew at a double-digit rate in the second half of 2019, according to the report.
           

Lowenstein: Coronavirus recommendations for service providers

The coronavirus has already deeply affected daily life and traditional mobility patterns. New developments are occurring seemingly hourly, with individuals, workers, and businesses confronted with situations few had ever contemplated. Broadband and mobile service providers have moved quickly over the past few days. Service providers are for the most part adopting the ‘Keep America Connected’ pledge, which has a particular focus on Lifeline and underserved subscribers, by not terminating service contracts, eliminating late fees, and opening up public hotspots to all. Mobile operators have moved quickly to remove data caps on metered service plans and to shore up capacity. Impressively, T-Mobile has worked with several 600 MHz spectrum holders to tap into their unused spectrum, on a short-term basis. These are all important, and commendable steps.
           

Facebook debuts $100M program to aid businesses amid COVID-19

Facebook is giving small business a financial boost to the tune of $100 million in cash and ad grants to help them deal with the impact of the coronavirus. With restaurants, stores, stadiums and gyms being closed across the globe, Facebook will dole out grants to up to 30,000 small business in more than 30 countries, according to a blog post.
           

Monday, March 16, 2020

Red Hat, Intel Jump Into CNF, VNF Test Bed

Red Hat and Intel have created a cloud-based onboarding service and test bed for virtualized and containerized network functions (VNFs and CNFs). The work is targeted at bridging the gap between VNFs that typically run on virtual machines (VMs) and CNFs that run in containerized environments.
           

Infinera Pushes 800G Further in Latest Trial

Optical networking vendor Infinera pushed the cost per bit of telecommunications ever lower today, announcing the successful trial of an 800 Gb/s single-wave transmission over a distance of 950 kilometers.
           

T-Mobile herds 600 MHz spectrum for COVID-19 response

T-Mobile worked with a variety of other providers to rustle up additional 600 MHz spectrum to help it meet increased customer demand for wireless broadband, as people are forced to work and learn from home. The companies that have agreed to contribute spectrum are Dish, Comcast, NewLevel, LB License Co, Channel 51, Omega, Bluewater and TStar License Holdings.  
           

Frontier enters 60-day grace period on interest payment

As it continues talks with its bondholders regarding its capital structure, Frontier Communications announced on Monday that it would defer making the interest payments due on Monday on some of its senior unsecured notes. Instead, Frontier said it would enter a 60-day grace period.
           

Verizon, T-Mobile, Apple close retail doors amid COVID-19

Verizon and T-Mobile on Saturday said they would each be closing doors of some retail stores in response to the evolving COVID-19 pandemic. The closures follow Apple’s announcement Friday that it would close all retail stores outside of Greater China until March 27, which Wells Fargo analysts said could impact subscriber growth this quarter. 
           

Cincinnati Bell pivots to Macquarie for a $2.9B deal

Cincinnati Bell announced on Friday that it has struck a $2.9 billion deal to be acquired by Macquarie Infrastructure Partners (MIP). Near the end of December, Toronto-based conglomerate Brookfield Infrastructure Partners LP announced it was buying Cincinnati Bell for $2.6 billion, but ultimately was out-bid by MIP.
           

NCTA calls out CTIA for ‘ill-conceived' push in 6 GHz band

NCTA — The Internet & Television Association (NCTA) told the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) last week to reject calls by CTIA to consider auctioning off part of the 6 GHz band, and instead stick to the FCC’s plan to designate the entire 1200 megahertz for unlicensed use.
           

ITU closes HQ in Geneva to delegates

The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) standards organization announced that starting today, all international meetings at ITU premises will be remote until April 17 at the earliest.
           

CCA’s 2020 Mobile Carriers Show Is Heading to Dallas

The Internet of Things (IoT), 5G, and policy updates from Washington, DC will be major focuses of Competitive Carriers Association’s (CCA) 2020 Mobile Carriers Show (MCS), which is moving ahead as planned, March 30-April 1 in Dallas.  MCS is jam-packed with educational sessions, networking events, opportunities to meet with industry peers, and attracts more competitive carrier executives than any other industry event.  With over one third of registered attendees hailing from a carrier company, MCS is the place to make connections with key industry influencers.   
           

Sunday, March 15, 2020

Big Tech in the Time of Coronavirus

As we all attempt to navigate the new normal, the world’s largest tech companies are looking for ways to accelerate COVID-19 detection and response and, in general, use their technology for good in the time of coronavirus.
           

Rancher Labs Lassos $40M Funding Round

Rancher Labs is heading back to the bank today after announcing a $40 million Series D funding round led by Rancher customer and Australia’s largest telecommunications company, Telstra. The new round brings its total funding to date to $95 million.
           

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