Headcount: Firings, Hirings, and Retirings — May 2020

Here are some of the latest executive hirings, promotions, and staff changes that happened in May. If you’d like SDxCentral to report on your company’s movers and shakers, or if you’ve got a tip about layoffs and restructuring, please send the information to Sydney Sawaya (ssawaya@sdxcentral.com) for inclusion in the monthly headcount column.

6G Concepts Gain Backing Amid Political Smacking

A cocktail of equal parts short-attention spans, swagger, and fierce competition muddled with geopolitical tension is giving rise to 6G — or at least the unrefined taste of it.

Tech bigwigs drive new global Wi-Fi roaming initiative

The Wi-Fi industry for years has been trying make Wi-Fi roaming as easy as cellular roaming. Can the Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA) finally make it happen with the acceptance of Cisco Systems’ OpenRoaming technology? That’s the plan.

Ericsson suspends weekend field work amid reports of 5G protests

Ericsson said its U.S. and Canadian field staff will not be doing any on-site work over the weekend except in the case of emergencies after reports surfaced that 5G protests are planned.

AT&T turns on DSS in parts of North Texas

AT&T said Friday that dynamic spectrum sharing (DSS) is now live in parts of its network. That’s slightly ahead of the timeline cited by Igal Elbaz last month, when the executive said the carrier would introduce DSS technology in the second half of 2020.

Report: France, Germany take on AWS, Microsoft and Google

France and Germany are teaming up to jointly create a cloud-computing ecosystem that would challenge Amazon, Microsoft and Google, according to Reuters.

Spirent fuels Calix's testing across a virtual automated lab

Calix and Spirent have been working together for more than three years on a laboratory-as-a-service platform, but that work took on added importance during coronavirus pandemic.

Matrixx mixes it up in Mexico

BSS vendor Matrixx scored a handy deal win with AT&T Mexico to bring its prepaid subscriber platform into the 21st century.

Omdia crowns South Korea as global 5G leader

And unfortunately for everyone else, it doesn’t even look to be that close a race…

Facebook flags posts from ‘state-controlled media’

Social media giant Facebook continues to walk the tightrope on censorship, this time adding warning labels to posts that originate from media outlets it considers to be under state control.

Abu Dhabi investment fund buys 1.85% Jio Platforms stake

Reliance Industries have found a fifth investor to purchase a handsome stake in Jio Platforms, its digital business unit, with Mubadala signing a $1.2 billion cheque for 1.85%.

Ciena Posts Strong Q2 Earnings Beat

Optical networking vendor Ciena pushed aside pandemic-related challenges in the second quarter of 2020 to post robust earnings Thursday. The company banked $91.7 million in net income on $894 million in revenue, which was up 3.4% year over year, exceeding investor expectations by $4.6 million.

Daily Roundup: VMware Lassos Lastline

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Rakuten's 4G core will not survive NEC shift

Japanese e-commerce giant says the move will address some of the shortcomings of the non-standalone system it has built.

Broadcom signals delay to new Apple iPhone launch

Chipmaker points to delays at 'large North American mobile phone' customer that will push its usual annual revenue uptick into the current, third fiscal quarter.

Dish reportedly begins leasing towers for 5G

The Wall Street analysts at Wells Fargo reported that one contact said Dish has already inked leases for hundreds of cell towers to hold its 5G equipment.

How to Train Employees Not to Fall for Phishing Attacks

Companies have lost more than $12 billion to spear phishing and account takeover, according to Barracuda Networks.

AT&T takes DSS commercial on 5G, albeit very carefully

Dynamic Spectrum Sharing (DSS) is going live on AT&T's network, but only for customers in parts of Texas across three different phones. And don't expect faster speeds either.

The only 5G health risk is the mast-burning vandal

'Experts' who depict 5G as the ultimate evil could provide the vindication that others seek for their criminal behavior.

Oh, Ciena... analysts impressed by Q2 beats

Network supplier surpasses expectations. Strong order-book impresses.

WiCipedia: How companies can align values with profits

This week in our WiC roundup: The pandemic could negatively affect diversity efforts; companies like Cisco are aligning money with ethics; queer women and nonbinary people in tech get their own who's who list; and more.

VMware Buys Lastline to Boost Security NDR

VMware acquired security firm Lastline in a move that will add a network detection and response (NDR) component to VMware’s NSX architecture and Carbon Black security platforms.

Eurobites: France, Germany suit up for cloud 'moonshot'

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Switzerland ahead in Europe's 5G race, says Omdia; Telecom Italia cuts more jobs; COVID-19 app confusion in the UK.

What’s it mean to be Fierce? Our new look tells the story

A few years ago, one of our Fierce editors met a contact in person for the first time. “You’re the ones with the scary name,” he joked. It was a glancing reference, but the comment stuck, and for good reason. We had never articulated, for ourselves or anyone else, what being Fierce actually meant.

What’s it mean to be Fierce? Our new look tells the story

A few years ago, one of our Fierce editors met a contact in person for the first time. “You’re the ones with the scary name,” he joked. It was a glancing reference, but the comment stuck, and for good reason. We had never articulated, for ourselves or anyone else, what being Fierce actually meant.

DoD doubles down on 5G testbeds

Less than a week after submissions closed in the U.S. Department of Defense’s first round of 5G-related RPPs, the agency announced seven new military sites for a second group of 5G testbeds.

VMware strikes a deal to buy anti-malware pioneer Lastline

VMware announced on Thursday that it has struck a deal to buy network security vendor Lastline for an undisclosed sum. Lastline marked VMware's third security deal of this year after previously announcing deals for analytics vendor Nyansa in January and Kubernetes security startup Octarine last month.

FCC’s O’Rielly: CBRS power limits could be increased in future

In a recent FierceWireless virtual event, FCC Commissioner Michael O’Rielly alluded to the possibility that Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) rules could change in the future to allow for higher-powered devices (CBSDs). And analysts at Mobile Experts say this possibility could increase the value of CBRS priority access licenses (PALs). 

Health charity warns NHS app could exacerbate existing health inequalities

The Health Foundation has warned the existence of digital divides in UK society could create a false sense of security as some segments of society are left in the dark.

Germany and France strive for cloud relevance through Gaia-X project

In a typically European approach, a mass collaboration involving the public and private sectors from Germany and France aims to take on the global cloud computing giants.

Vertical Bridge first tower co to become 100% carbon neutral

Vertical Bridge, the largest privately-owned communications infrastructure company in the U.S., achieved its goal of becoming 100% carbon neutral – the first telecom tower company in the world to do so.

Report: Data center switch market crumples in Q1 due to COVID-19

For the first time in nine years, the data center switch market recorded a decline due in part to COVID-19, according to research by Dell'Oro Group. The data switch market dropped 9% year-over-year in the first quarter while revenue was the lowest in three years, according to Dell'Oro Group.

Amazon enters the fray for a stake in India’s telecom business

Amazon is in talks to invest $2 billion in the Indian mobile operator Bharti Airtel, according to unnamed sources of Reuters. If completed, the investment could give Amazon about a 5% stake in Bharti.

AT&T pursues new STA for 37/39 GHz tests

AT&T is working with several equipment vendors to test new 5G equipment in the 37/39 GHz band prior to equipment certification, including Nokia, Ericsson, Qualcomm and Samsung.

Despite COVID-19, Ciena chalks up solid second quarter results

While many vendors have bemoaned the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in their earnings reports, Ciena rose above the storm in its fiscal Q2 earnings.

Juniper executives dish on disaggregation, 5G and 400G

Juniper is working to diversify its product portfolio across 5G and 400G, and find a wider range of router customers, according to two of its execs. 

Amazon said to be considering $2 billion stake in Bharti Airtel

The strange big tech arms race in the Indian telecoms sector looks set to escalate further if Amazon buys a major stake in Bharti Airtel.

Congress asks FCC to slow down 5G acceleration plans

24 Democrat members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee have asked FCC Chairman Ajit Pai to delay a vote on a Declaratory Ruling which would dilute local Government’s role in 5G.

UK government reported to be tapping up NEC for 5G network help

As part of a general rethink of the Huawei situation, the UK government seems to have decided it needs to do more than merely set vendor share thresholds.

Google to face $5bn privacy lawsuit as consumer craving for secrecy increases

Law firm Boies Schiller Flexner has filed a $5 billion class action lawsuit against Google in the Northern District of California for continuing to collect data while privacy mode is activated.

How Amazon, Microsoft and Google are courting – and challenging – telcos

The pairings between telecom operators and public cloud providers for edge computing and 5G are growing, a trend that's expected to pick up steam in the months and years ahead.

US cell tower techs warned of 5G attacks

A trade association for US cell tower technicians is warning its members of possible attacks this weekend. Ericsson will reportedly discontinue work on US cell towers due to the situation.

Cisco Catches Dozens of IOS Security Bugs

Cisco’s IOS software hosted more than two dozen security vulnerabilities that could have allowed attackers to gain remote access and execute commands without proper authentication. Four of those security bugs were cited as “critical.”

Amazon wants to buy stake worth $2B in India's Airtel – reports

Web giant is the latest foreign investor linked with the Indian telecom sector after recent moves by Facebook and various private equity firms.

US military expands 5G testing to include AR, spectrum sharing and open RAN

The US military said it will test 5G networks across a total of 12 bases, and will look at technologies ranging from spectrum sharing to 'Open Radio Access Networks.'

Daily Roundup: VMware’s Gelsinger High on Tech, Software, Cloud

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UK in search of Huawei 5G replacements – report

Prime Minister Johnson shows signs of backtracking on the Chinese supplier.

Coronavirus Cleaves SD-WAN Revenue Growth

The SD-WAN market was on track for another year of record revenue growth right up until the pandemic struck. SD-WAN revenues are now expected to decelerate through the remainder of the year, according to reports from Dell’Oro Group and Vertical Systems Group (VSG).

Telecom equipment market gets off to weak start in Q1 2020 – Dell'Oro

Revenue shares of Cisco, Huawei and Nokia declined in the first quarter of 2020 compared to the same period of 2019.

Midco nears debut of new IP-based video service

Eyeing improved pay-TV economics, the new offering, called 'Midco TV,' will run on mobile devices and Android TV boxes, use TiVo's UI and be underpinned by Vecima's CDN and video processing/transcoding platforms.

HKT weighing sale of international unit PCCW Global – report

The company is in the early stages of considering a number of options, including sale.

Telecom Gear Sales Dropped During Q1, Dell'Oro Says

Telecommunications equipment sales declined 4% during the first quarter of 2020, according to new research from Dell’Oro Group. Among the top five suppliers, ZTE was the only vendor to gain market share during the quarter. 

AT&T catches heat for HBO Max data cap exemption

Citing potential net neutrality concerns, a set of Democratic US senators has criticized AT&T's sponsored data policy for the new SVoD service, arguing it could harm consumers and stifle competition.

Eurobites: Iliad, Open Fiber 'close to deal'

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: O2 rides the rails in the UK; Brit academic slams COVID-19 app strategy; Com Hem upgrades TV service.

NetApp Nabs Spot to Boost ADI Business

NetApp continued its months-long buying spree, this time acquiring cloud cost management platform provider Spot in a move to bolster its application driven infrastructure (ADI) business.

Comcast teases 'interactive livestreams' for X1

Cable op is developing enhanced television applications for its pay-TV platform that will be powered by tech from Watchwith, the deep metadata company Comcast acquired in 2017.

Google: CBRS deployments doubled from March to April

Google, an early and well-known proponent of sharing in the 3.5 GHz CBRS space, is seeing strong demand for the General Authorized Access (GAA), or unlicensed, part of the band, with deployments doubling from March to April.

‘Remove China Apps’ was top of the Indian Android charts until Google removed it

China seems to be falling out with everyone these days, as symbolised by the popularity of an Indian app designed solely to help uninstall Chinese ones.

Digital Realty and Ascenty to build two data centers in Mexico

Colocation and data center giant Digital Realty and Ascenty will build two new data centers in Mexico for a large global cloud provider. The two companies didn't identify the cloud provider that will be using the new facilities in Queretaro, Mexico, but did say they had long-term, multi-megawatt agreements in place.

Nokia touts 30% base station energy savings with 5G cooling tech

In what Nokia’s touted as a world-first, mobile operator Elisa deployed the vendor’s 5G liquid cooling base station technology in Finland to help significantly reduce power consumption and cut CO2 emissions.

2020 will see a video conferencing profit boom, but it could be short-lived

Zoom might be riding a high for the moment, but unless it starts to add additional value into its products it will soon wither away to the realms of irrelevance.

Rakuten and NEC take on global telecom vendors with 5G core

Rakuten Mobile launched its greenfield 4G network on April 8, but it’s moving fast on its 5G network. And the Japanese operator seems to have even bigger ambitions. Today it said it’s working with NEC to develop a standalone 5G core network based on containers. And not only will Rakuten Mobile use this core in its own network, but Rakuten and NEC plan to offer it as a product to other operators – in competition with global telecom vendors such as Nokia and Ericsson.

8 service providers close in on MEF LSO Sonata deployments

There's movement afoot for MEF's LSO Sonata API as eight service providers are on track to be production ready for deploying Carrier Ethernet services by the second quarter of this year.

FCC urged to delay 5G Upgrade Order due to COVID-19, protests

Lawmakers on both sides of the political spectrum are citing the COVID-19 pandemic as a reason to support or delay a vote on an FCC order that would make it easier to deploy 5G equipment on existing communications infrastructure.

Bell Canada doesn’t rule out Huawei for 5G

Bell Canada and Telus this week tapped Ericsson and Nokia for their respective 5G builds, meaning all three of Canada’s major operators have bypassed Huawei amid government indecision on the Chinese vendor’s role in telecom networks.

Netcracker 2020 draws a bead on 5G digital economy

After three years in the making, OSS/BSS vendor Netcracker took the wraps off of its Netcracker 2020 digital portfolio. Netcracker 2020 offers service providers and their customers an automated, multi-vendor microservices environment for 5G digital services and applications.  

Huawei and Italy smartphone sales most heavily hit by COVID-19

The latest numbers from analyst firm Counterpoint reveal the European smartphone market shrank by 7% in Q1 2020, but there was considerable variation between vendors and countries.

Report: COVID-19 supply chain issues puts damper on SD-WAN

While worldwide SD-WAN market still continued to expand in the Q1 of this year, the rate of acceleration slowed, according to a report by Dell'Oro Group.

Google Cloud signs valuable procurement deal with UK Government

Google Cloud has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with UK Crown Commercial Service, a step towards developing a supplier relationship with public sector organisations in the country.

Nokia signals its technology virtue

Finnish kit vendor Nokia has been getting involved with liquid cooling 5G base stations and dynamically refarming loads of spectrum.

Rakuten takes first step towards a hybrid operator/vendor telco

Rakuten and NEC will develop a containerized standalone (SA) 5G core network, which will become one of the first products available on the Rakuten Communications Platform (RCP).

Comcast beefs up cloud DVR storage

Cable op has quietly more than doubled its cloud DVR storage hours – from 60 to 150 per sub – but how does it compare to the streaming competition?

Rakuten Mobile Taps NEC for Homegrown 5G Core

Rakuten Mobile isn’t going far, less than 10 miles in fact, for the procurement of its 5G core. The subsidiary of the ecommerce juggernaut tapped NEC, a fellow Japanese company also based in Tokyo, to build a standalone (SA) 5G core that will be deployed next year.

VMware’s Gelsinger: Tech Is Better Than GDP, Software and Cloud Even Stronger

VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger, coming off a strong earnings quarter despite COVID-19 induced economic upheaval, repeated his cloud-and-software-first mantra at the Bank of America 2020 Global Technology Conference this afternoon. “We continue to see this hierarchy,” he said. “Wherever GDP is, tech will be better, and software and cloud will be better than that.”

Making open RAN happen

Open RAN is a new way to build mobile access networks with many benefits.

Daily Roundup: SDxCentral Condemns the Murder of George Floyd

In case you’ve been stuck in video conference meetings all day, here are today’s top stories from SDxCentral. Also, make sure to subscribe to our daily newsletter to get these stories in your inbox.

Google Cloud Gains U.K. Gov’t Foothold

Google Cloud signed a deal with a United Kingdom government agency that opens the door for U.K. public sector agencies to use Google Cloud services as part of their digital transformation. The deal is similar to one signed earlier this year between Microsoft and the U.K. government agency.

New Netcracker suite lures 15 customers to the show

The 2020 update from the NEC subsidiary looks well timed, with 5G, the cloud and a microservices architecture all in mind.

AT&T: We moved hundreds of tower sites in 2019 to get better deals

As it works to reduce the cash outlay for renting space on cell towers, AT&T is threatening to move off of towers it deems too expensive.

Huawei tried to cover up its control of Iran's Skycom – Reuters

The Chinese equipment vendor tried to bury details of its relationship with Skycom, a company that sold equipment to Iran in breach of US sanctions, according to new documents unearthed by Reuters.

Quibi cuts back – report

The struggling mobile-focused streaming service confirmed internally that some senior execs are taking a voluntary 10% pay cut, but shot down rumors that the company is mulling a broader 10% staff layoff.

Nokia trumpets green credentials with 5G liquid cooling tech

Finnish vendor said it helped mobile operator Elisa to reduce energy costs and CO2 emissions of its 5G basestation.

The Telecoms.com Podcast: M&A, retail and social media

'Just the two of us,' crooned the late, great Bill Withers. He probably had this podcast in mind.

CCS Insight more bullish on 5G than GSMA

Research firm says a quarter of mobile connections will be 5G by 2025.

MEF Boasts 8 Carrier Ethernet Orchestration Deployments

MEF today named eight service providers that already have or plan to deploy MEF 3.0 lifecycle services orchestration (LSO) APIs for carrier Ethernet service orchestration before the end of this month.

Eurobites: Fastweb boosts its enterprise appeal with Cutaway acquisition

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Iskratel tackles CPE; work begins on Channel Islands network upgrade; Telefónica offers its servers for research into diseases.

Goodbye Huawei, hello Ericsson: Swap-out gathers pace

The Swedish equipment vendor is in pole position as the US-led campaign against Huawei gathers momentum.

CenturyLink touts early edge computing customer wins

Following its announcement last year of an investment into edge computing, CenturyLink said it's seeing interest from customers deploying private networks and IoT offerings.

T-Mobile moving NYC's midband 5G signal from Nokia to Ericsson

T-Mobile is shutting off the 2.5GHz 5G signal on Nokia's equipment in New York City. Instead, the operator is using Ericsson equipment to broadcast that midband transmission.

Adtran Grows SD-Access Portfolio

Adtran today unveiled a sweeping expansion to its SDX series of software-defined access hardware. The company’s portfolio now includes a wider array of fiber aggregation, access, and optical network terminals.

Starry on trajectory to attract 100K subs by year end: analyst

Fixed wireless broadband provider Starry reports having its best quarter ever in Q1, but the COVID-19 crisis is having an impact, which is not uniform across its markets.

Can the sharing economy survive COVID-19?

For the most of us, the coronavirus pandemic has forced a new way of working, but for some businesses, there could be drastic consequences as societal behaviour and attitudes are shifted.

Ericsson’s having a good day, adding a 5G win with Bell Canada

Swedish kit vendor Ericsson has celebrated two 5G deal wins today, with the latest indicating it took some share from rivals Nokia and Huawei.

3 ways a recession might hit CenturyLink: MoffettNathanson

Analysts at MoffettNathanson say a prolonged recession, which might happen as a result of the COVID-19 crisis, would hurt CenturyLink in three ways. 

Report: COVID-19 squeezes colocation services market growth

The colocation services market revenue will grow by 6.2% this year, but that's below a previous forecast of 9.2%, according to research by Omdia. Revenue is expected to grow at a 7.1% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from 2020 through 2024.

U.S. Cellular names AT&T Mexico exec as CEO

U.S. Cellular has tapped AT&T Mexico CEO Laurent Therivel as the wireless carrier’s new chief executive, starting July 1.

SES Networks snags its first SD-WAN customer

After spending the last two years aligning various elements, SES Networks' satellite-based SD-WAN service is now generally available.

C-band clearing to move ahead on accelerated timeline

The FCC announced that clearing of C-band spectrum will move forward on an accelerated timeline, making the first phase available by the end of 2021. 

Citing social unrest, Cisco postpones Cisco Live

Cisco is postponing its flagship event, Cisco Live, until later in June due to the ongoing racial tension in the U.S.

YouTube is the UK’s most popular video streaming app

New data from App Annie reveals that YouTube still tops the SVoD platforms when it comes to time spent streaming in the UK via apps. Precise metrics aren’t offered, but we wouldn’t be surprised to learn that YouTube was miles ahead of the rest. Not only is it free, but many people, especially children and […]

US path to mid-band spectrum not as simple as some make it seem

Despite many proclamations and posturing during the development years of 5G, mmWave is not living up to expectations, but securing valuable mid-band assets is becoming an increasingly complex project.

Gartner: Smartphone shipments nose-dived 20% during Q1

Smartphone shipments have been slashed across the industry during the first three months of 2020, though Xiaomi managed to post some year-on-year growth.

China leads the way as mobile network core market proves resilient

With the difficulties presented by COVID-19, the 5G roadmap might not have progressed as planned, but growth has remained steady for mobile core deployments.

Zynga spends $1.8bn to buy its way back into relevance

Zynga has announced the purchase of Turkish mobile games developer Peak for $1.8 billion, skyrocketing share price at a firm credited with being one of the first to break the mobile gaming sector.

The Edge is More than a Place

Edge is going through a sea change today. Evolving technology ecosystems and new wave of applications in computer vision, Edge analytics, telco virtual radio access networks and autonomous vehicles require real time analytics. IT work at home and data privacy regulations are all driving the new paradigm. The outcome of these changes is an explosion of data produced outside the cloud and core data center. This data has two requirements: 1) a powerful compute capability to process it, and 2) real-time systems with very low latency that will provide insights and summarize the massive wave of data near the source. Addressing privacy and security are also key considerations in the evolution of Edge computing.

Vodafone bosses boost their pay as jobs are culled

Times are good for the top brass at the UK operator, but less rosy for the service provider's European workforce.

US continues push to keep China out of its telecom networks

Telecom companies including Huawei, Pacific Networks and ComNet are among those in heated legal disputes with US officials, who are aiming to turn the world against China.

CNTT Baldy Release Hastens Container NFVi Focus

The Common NFVi Telco Taskforce (CNTT) recently dropped its second release, continuing its push to define and create virtual network function (VNF) reference architectures for NFV infrastructure (NFVi).

Veeam Data Report: Legacy is Out, Cloud Services Are in

Technology becomes obsolete with time and the latest 2020 Veeam Data Protection Trends Report indicates a rising tide of change as 44% of global organizations are being hindered in their digital transformation journeys due to unreliable, legacy technologies.

AT&T's Sponsored Data rises again for HBO Max

AT&T's smartphone customers won't incur data-usage fees when they watch content from HBO Max. That's likely an indication of AT&T's efforts to ensure the success of the offering.

Zoom blooms and another boom looms soon

After attracting 265,400 customers with more than 10 employees and a whole host of weird cocktail parties, the video conference star predicts another killer quarter ahead.

Small US cable op scraps its data cap

Antietam Broadband has eliminated its data usage plans and data caps permanently after relaxing those policies temporarily during the pandemic. Antietam's move could pressure other cable ops to follow suit.

SDxCentral Condemns the Murder of George Floyd

SDxCentral condemns the horrific murder of George Floyd at the hands of the Minneapolis Police Department. SDxCentral also condemns police brutality and the rash of racially motivated murders of the BIPOC (black, indigenous, and people of color) communities.

Prodapt Adds flexiWAN to Virtual Test Bed

Open source SD-WAN vendor flexiWAN today announced it had joined Prodapt’s Open Virtual Exchange (OpenVX). The test-bed serves as a framework for the development, testing, and integration of virtual edge services such as SD-WAN.

Rakuten unwraps NEC's 5G core

NEC will supply Rakuten's 5G core. That's noteworthy considering Rakuten has emerged as a leading player in the global wireless industry's move to open, cloud-based network technology.

Daily Roundup: Plug Pulled on Cisco Live

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Ericsson Falls Under Financial Oversight After Corruption Scandal

Ericsson today abutted continued fallout due to a long-running bribery and financial corruption scandal with a pair of 5G customer wins.

Cisco Live Postponed, Robbins Pledges $5M to Fight Racism

Cisco postponed its virtual Cisco Live event following George Floyd’s murder while in police custody last week and the massive civil unrest that has since erupted in cities across the United States.

Eurobites: Tele2 Sweden goes 5G roaming in Latvia

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: UK operators to be 'compensated' for Huawei strip-out; Italy pilots decentralized COVID-19 app; CityFibre poaches some of Ofcom's legal firepower.

Cisco donates $5M to anti-discrimination organizations, postpones Cisco Live

The event was originally scheduled to run today and Wednesday – which would have marked the first fully virtual Cisco Live US.

Digicel embarks on Iliad odyssey

Beleaguered Caribbean operator sets sail on mobile network JV with French telecoms group.

Malaysia minister sidelines regulator with shock 5G directive

Communications and Multimedia Minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah has ordered the regulator to issue 700MHz spectrum to five individual operators.

Viasat cuts staff, sizes up LEO satellite opportunity for rural broadband

Satellite broadband company has laid off about 300 employees and paused hiring to ease the financial impact of an in-flight business that's been hit hard by a major cut back in air travel during the pandemic.

Starry's base growing by 10% per month, nearing 100K sub mark – analyst

Fixed wireless broadband startup is succeeding in a slow, targeted way against rivals in markets such as Boston, but Starry's greater impact on the national US broadband market is still a drop in the bucket.

German 5G industrial plan will punish smaller firms, says Orange exec

The industry is still riven over plans to reserve spectrum for companies outside the telecom sector.

Telefónica Deutschland opts for Ericsson as 5G core partner

German operator prefers to rely on a European supplier for the 'security-relevant' 5G core.

Dish adds T-Mobile veteran Mayo to network team

Dish Network is adding more wireless industry savvy to its ranks, with former T-Mobile executive Dave Mayo joining as EVP, Network Development.

Editor’s Corner: Verizon's Vestberg gets emotional about racism

Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg was visibly upset and emotional as he announced a program today in which Verizon is committing $10 million to organizations that are dedicated to racial equality and social justice.

Australian court rules media are liable for comments made on their Facebook pages

In a timely ruling, an Australian court of appeal has upheld a ruling that media are legally liable for defamatory comments made on their public Facebook pages.

VMware’s CEO shares thoughts on work-from-home impacts

On its fiscal Q1 2021 earnings call VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger said that in many ways the COVID-19 pandemic had driven a decade of digital transformation in a few short weeks, and that chief information officers had become more important than ever to many businesses.

Comcast Business delivers enterprise-grade broadband for WFH

Along the same lines as AT&T last week, Comcast Business has released a more robust, in-home broadband service for work from home (WFH) employees. In order to provide improved connectivity and security for WFH employees, Comcast Business has introduced its Comcast Business At Home offering.

T-Mobile touts 5G roaming deal with GCI in Alaska

T-Mobile struck a 5G roaming deal with GCI in Alaska, prompting T-Mobile to claim it’s the first to offer 5G is all 50 states.

T-Mobile clocks 1.2 Gbps in NYC: report

T-Mobile went live with its 5G spectrum “layer cake” in New York City last month and new analysis by Ookla provides some morsels of what performance on the 5G network could look like.

COVID-19 takes a bite out of carrier managed SD-WAN revenue

After posting a triple-digit revenue increase last year, the growth outlook for carrier managed SD-WAN has been lowered by 17%, according to a report. According to research by Vertical Systems Group, the corornavirus pandemic was the primary factor for lowering the growth outlook for this year.

Equinix strikes a $750M deal to buy 13 data centers in Canada

Equinix has broadened its horizons across Canada by buying 13 data centers from Bell (BCE) for $750 million in cash. The acquisition is expected to close in the second half of this year once it passes customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals.

BT plays the green card

UK telco BT has a cunning plan for turning the business around… by reducing its carbon footprint.

International voice traffic spikes 20% during COVID-19

Roaming traffic might be down substantially, but industry association i3Forum is reporting a surge in the number and duration of international calls.

Facebook attempts to walk the tightrope on censorship

Having criticized Twitter for poking the bear, Facebook seems to be adopting a more nuanced approach to policing its platform.

As MasMovil becomes latest acquisition target, are more takeovers on the horizon?

KKR, Cinven and Providence have combined forces to buy Spanish telco MasMovil, but with depressed share prices and regulatory opinions shifting, it could just be the first corporate transaction.

Daily Roundup: What Will the New Normal Look Like?

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Schlichting out, Schwimmer in as Sling TV's top boss

Warren Schlichting's exit comes amid steepening losses at the Dish-owned OTT-TV service provider.

Google’s Anthos Expansion Follows Technical Track

Google’s ongoing attempt to steal away market share from larger cloud rivals Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure has forced the company to try different business models that take into account its challenger position. This was seen in the recent expansion of Google’s Anthos platform that is initially targeting Amazon Web Services (AWS).

Dish adds former T-Mobile exec Mayo to 5G buildout recipe

Dish Network said it hired Dave Mayo, a former T-Mobile network executive, to head up its 'wireless buildout strategy and execution of the company's deployment of the nation's first standalone 5G network.'

Dell, VMware Supercharge AI With Bitfusion

Dell Technologies, in partnership with VMware, launched two products that aim to make it easier for customers to run artificial intelligence (AI) workloads in VMware environments. The company calls these Dell EMC Ready Solutions, and they combine Dell EMC hardware systems with VMware’s Cloud Foundation software stack using virtualization technology that VMware acquired when it bought Bitfusion last year.

How Blurry Will the Post-Pandemic New Normal Look?

Almost three months ago, possibly more or less depending on where you live, work, and go to school, the world shut down. Now that some businesses, schools, and governments are reopening, infrastructure vendors (along with the rest of us) are trying to predict what the new normal will look like in terms of IT environments and everyday life.

Testing giant Rohde & Schwarz kicks off 6G marketing efforts

Complete with a website, hashtag and possible testing rig, Rohde & Schwarz is looking to take an early lead in the discussion around 6G.

Podcast: Light Reading's Iain Morris on Huawei's future and what it means for China

In this podcast, Light Reading International Editor Iain Morris and Editor-in-Chief Phil Harvey discuss whether stopping Huawei in the US and Europe will do much of anything to slow down China from becoming the world's dominant technology superpower in the next decade. They also examine the most recent court ruling against Huawei's CFO, and what it means as she fights extradition to the US.

The biggest 5G challenge for telcos? Learning to collaborate

For 5G to succeed, operators and telcos must learn how to forge partnerships and build new businesses across numerous verticals – something they've never done.

Equinix Plots Canadian Expansion With $750M BCE Buy

Equinix today inked a deal to acquire 13 data center sites from Canada’s BCE Inc. for $750 million. The colocation giant said the sites represent a total of 25 data center facilities that are expected to generate about $105 million in revenue on an annual basis.

BT sets out green ambitions post COVID-19

UK-based operator launches two new initiatives to help tackle climate change.

Comcast Business tailors new offering for home workers

In response to the pandemic, Comcast has accelerated the introduction of a new 'At Home' product that provides a dedicated, commercial-grade service paired with a simplified, company-paid billing structure.

SKT kick-starts new TEAC Wave

South Korea's largest mobile operator sets in motion a third 'Wave' at its TIP Ecosystem Acceleration Centre (TEAC) – this time to try and spur 5G edge innovation in a 'post-COVID-19 world.'

Oracle looking to sell 5G core to network operators

Sensing a sizable opportunity, Oracle is joining the likes of Ericsson, Huawei, Microsoft, HPE and others in selling 5G core services to mobile network operators.

SDxCentral’s Top 10 Articles — May 2020

Check out our top 10 articles for May 2020 covering the SDxCentral universe of SDN, NFV, and related topics. Rankings are based on unique visitors aggregated during the month.

Chipmakers Lobby for $37B in Aid for US Fabs

American chipmakers are pushing for substantial government subsidies as pressure to end U.S. reliance on China mounts.

BT 5G turns one year old with not much to celebrate

The UK's 5G service does not look like it is off to the flying start that 4G had several years ago.

Eurobites: Is a Huawei handbrake-turn ahead for UK?

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: investment firms launch bid for MasMovil; Kenyan government proposes new digital levy; management maneuverings at Net Insight.

Equinix to buy BCE's data centers for $750M

As expected, Canada's BCE said it will sell its data centers to Equinix. The operator joins Verizon, AT&T and others in exiting the data center business.

Tencent carves out $70bn for Chinese cloud expansion

Hong Kong-based Tencent has said it plans to expand its business into cloud computing services, ranging from traditional data centres to enterprise AI services.