Headcount: Firings, Hirings, and Retirings — September 2020

Here are some of the latest executive hirings, promotions, and staff changes that happened in August. 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.

Supermicro CEO Mounts 5G Strategy

Supermicro is reorienting some of its server business to pursue new opportunities for growth in the wireless market as 5G momentum builds.

VMware Hunts Zombies, Summons Sustainability Second Wave

To drive the next generation of technological advancements, VMware’s Director of Sustainability Innovation Nicola Peill-Moelter says sustainability innovation has to move faster. And we’ve got to kill the zombies — zombie servers, that is.

Amdocs eyes 5G monetization through 5G Open Innovation Lab

Amdocs recently joined the T-Mobile-led 5G Open Innovation Lab and the software and services provider is zeroing in on ways to monetize 5G with the help of partners.

Loon stealthily seeks experimental license

True to form, Loon is seeking authority from the FCC to use spectrum to conduct tests related to its High Altitude Platform Station (HAPS) system for connecting the underserved – and it’s disclosing very little about its plans.

Nelnet sells off 48% stake in service provider ALLO

Nelnet is selling off a 48% stake in overbuilder ALLO to SDC Capital Partners. The $197 million equity investment is expected to close this month once it passes closing conditions.

BT inks seven-year deal with London brokerage firm

BT signed a seven-year deal with TP ICAP, which is among the world's larger interdealer brokers. By working with BT Trading, TP ICAP will provide its 700-member broker team with a new software-based program that has remote work capabilities.

Wi-Fi fetes victory in court’s 6 GHz ruling

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and a host of Wi-Fi stakeholders were jubilant Thursday after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit denied a request for a stay on the FCC’s decision to open up the 6 GHz band for unlicensed users.

Edwards out, Treadway in as CommScope's CEO

After a 15-year stint, Eddie Edwards has stepped down from his CEO and president positions at CommScope as Charles Treadway takes over the helm. In addition to being named president and CEO, Treadway now has a seat on CommScope's board of directors.

Nokia hits 100 5G deals

Nokia on Friday announced it has hit the triple-digit milestone of 100 commercial 5G deals, adding 17 new 5G contracts in the third quarter.   Earlier this week the Finnish vendor secured a win to supply BT’s 5G radio access network (RAN) in the U.K. The deal value was not disclosed but Nokia said it is now BT’s largest equipment vendor. Nokia also announced a renewed 5G RAN contract with Elisa in Finland this week.

Charter serves up backup wireless service for SMBs

Charter Communications is keeping small to medium-sized businesses connected with its Wireless Internet Backup for Spectrum Business customers throughout its 41-state footprint.

France’s big four showed some restraint in the latest 5G spectrum auction

France’s auction of mid-band spectrum for 5G services ended almost before it had begun this week, with all four operators acquiring similar amounts of spectrum for broadly sensible prices.

Nokia appears to be gaining share as it hits 100 5G deal wins

Finnish kit vendor Nokia is on a solid run of winning 5G business, with 17 new deals in Q3 taking it to the 100 mark, just nine short of Ericsson’s total.

Ofcom action makes a difference on ‘follow me’ fraud

Ofcom’s move to tackle the questionable money-spinning opportunity inherent in the 070 virtual phone number system has had a positive impact on fraud, according to new data from BICS.

Private LTE delivers for shipping giant

It takes more than three weeks for one of Seaboard Marine's cargo ships to travel from Newark, New Jersey, to Paitu, Peru. Customers with cargo on board expect the shipping company to keep a close eye on their goods throughout the journey, and Seaboard Marine is turning to private LTE to help fulfill that expectation.

UK is one of the European leaders in 5G – Omdia

Research from analyst firm Omdia indicates the UK is one of the most advanced European countries when it comes to the 5G rollout.

2020 FierceWireless Rising Star — Samsung's Jisha Hall

For 2020 the FierceWireless editorial team has selected a diverse slate of wireless executives who are on the rise in their careers. We’re doling out the names of our winners, two per day, so that our readers have the time to enjoy reading their profiles. Next week, we’ll post our popular Rising Stars poll, giving everyone the opportunity to vote for their favorite top executive to watch in wireless.

2020 FierceWireless Rising Star-U.S. Cellular's Courtland Madock

For 2020 the FierceWireless editorial team has selected a diverse slate of wireless executives who are on the rise in their careers. We’re doling out the names of our winners, two per day, so that our readers have the time to enjoy reading their profiles. Next week, we’ll post our popular Rising Stars poll, giving everyone the opportunity to vote for their favorite top executive to watch in wireless.

Daily Roundup: HPE Claims Most Secure Server

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.

Shentel launches 5G-ready fixed wireless with Nokia

Shentel is looking to cover up to 15,000 households this year with fixed wireless Internet equipment from Nokia that can be upgraded to 5G.

Post offices could be the new edge of 5G networks – report

The US Postal Service Office of Inspector General argued that the agency's 31,000 facilities nationwide could play a major role in 5G and edge computing.

Cloudflare Gifts Free API Security for Its Birthday

Cloudflare spent its 10th-birthday week rolling out free products for customers including one that tackles API security and another that CEO Matthew Prince calls a “privacy first” alternative to Google Analytics.

CableLabs reaches key milestone on path to '10G'

New Flexible MAC architecture specs will give cable operators options as they disaggregate elements of next-gen networks that will pump out multi-gig speeds and support low latencies and enhanced security.

Is Altiostar really worth $250M?

As a part of Rakuten, the US software company has been thrust into the open RAN limelight.

How rising broadband demands might reshape US telecom

Demand for broadband Internet is at an all-time high. And some providers like AT&T, Windstream, Verizon and Frontier appear to be responding as a result.

India’s Airtel puts $13M in Security Intelligence Center

Bharti Airtel launched the Security Intelligence Center with an investment of INR1000 million, and Airtel Secure, cybersecurity for enterprise customers.

5G patent storm brewing – report

If you thought smartphone patent wars were already messy then it could be a whole lot worse now that a pile of different industries are looking to harness 5G and other technologies.

UK report cites flaw of 'national significance' in Huawei kit

Annual Huawei security report again highlights Huawei's ongoing software engineering shortcomings.

NTT DoCoMo Signals 5G to Stretch Its Cloud Across Borders

Japan’s NTT DoCoMo is linking its Open Innovation Cloud platform to international 5G networks using a dedicated network to help facilitate the use of cloud services across those borders.

Europe’s 4 Largest Operators Trumpet Open Network Gateways

Four of the world’s largest network operators are advocating for broadband network gateways (BNG) to be disaggregated and improved with open software and automation.

French Closed: France's €2.8B 5G auction farce

At least the French sale of 5G spectrum avoids the excesses seen in Italy and Germany.

HPE Swells Supply Chain Security, Claims Most-Secure Server

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) announced a secure supply chain initiative to boost customer trust in the lifecycle security of its products with U.S.-made servers as the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted global supply chains.

Coronavirus speeds up IoT adoption, businesses say

Seventy-eight percent of businesses adopting IoT say it was key to their lockdown continuity, with 67% increasing the pace of IoT due to the pandemic, says a new study.

Intel Wins Defense Contract, Commits to US Chip Dominance

Intel today was awarded the second phase of the Department of Defense (DoD) State-of-the-Art-Heterogeneous Integration Prototype (SHIP) program. The effort seeks to integrate U.S. government chips with Intel’s CPUs, ASICs, and FPGAs.

Eurobites: Nokia celebrates its 5G century

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Nokia cleared of profit-warning perfidiousness; BT clears out of Latin America; ETNO wheels out survey findings to prompt more 5G evangelism by governments.

WiCipedia: Is Trump going to end diversity training in tech?

This week in our WiC roundup: Harassment numbers in tech aren't improving; working moms of color find scholarship opportunity with The Mom Project; tech conferences aren't structured for women; and more.

Verizon’s LTE fixed wireless access is available in 48 states

Verizon’s fixed wireless access (FWA) rollout on LTE for rural areas is doing so well that the company has now made it available in parts of 48 states.

Cisco buys DevOp and Kubernetes security vendor PortShift

Cisco is boosting its security solutions with a deal to buy Israeli startup PortShift. While Cisco didn't announce the financial terms of the deal, which is slated to close in the first half of Cisco's fiscal 2021, Globes reported that Cisco is paying around $100 million for PortShift.

Dish’s 5G buildout revolves around wholesale vs. retail – report

A new report from Wall Street investment analysts at MoffettNathanson Research delves into Dish Network’s prospects for building out a greenfield 5G network. Spoiler alert: Cue the Debbie Downer tune from Saturday Night Live.

Nokia adds ‘extreme automation’ to 4G/5G network slicing

Nokia on Thursday announced it has added new automation capabilities for 4G and 5G network slicing, aimed at speeding up the time it takes for operators to deliver services and create or change slices.  

AT&T Fiber debuts new pricing, adds unlimited data for customers

AT&T threw down the broadband gauntlet on Thursday by rolling out three new price points for its AT&T Fiber tiers.

Verizon Business debuts Contact Center Hub for SMBs

With SMBs struggling due the Covid-19 crisis, Verizon Business is offering SMBs a way to stay connected to their customers through its Contact Center Hub.

End of an era as Singtel CEO Sock Koong hands over the torch

Singapore incumbent Singtel’s consumer chief Yuen Kuan Moon will take over as group CEO from January.

Moore: Verizon goes from worst to first in prepaid with Tracfone

As 2020 dawned, Verizon was in last place among the four national carriers in terms of prepaid with only four million subscribers, Verizon prepaid ranks well behind T-Mobile, Tracfone, AT&T, and even Dish Network, which operates Boost Mobile.  Not only that, most carriers have been gaining prepaid customers while Verizon has been losing customers at a rapid pace.

Google undercuts the flagship 5G smartphone market with Pixel 5

Internet giant Google has launched the latest version of its own-brand smartphone, which will set you back a relatively modest 600 quid.

Italy strokes America’s ego over 5G security

Italy and the US had a joint press conference in which the Italian Foreign Minister made it clear he’s willing to play ball on securing his country’s 5G networks.

Docomo, Fujitsu, NEC claim multi-vendor carrier aggregation world first

Big telco vendors have another reason to sleep in fear, after Docomo, Fujitsu and NEC laid claim to the world’s first successful 5G carrier aggregation using a multi-vendor RAN.

O2 UK hopes to accelerate driverless vehicle development

O2 has opened a new lab in the UK that will serve as a testbed for autonomous vehicles – the great white hope of the tech sector.

2020 FierceWireless Rising Star — T-Mobile's Yasmin Karimli

For 2020 the FierceWireless editorial team has selected a diverse slate of wireless executives who are on the rise in their careers. We’re doling out the names of our winners, two per day, so that our readers have the time to enjoy reading their profiles. Next week, we’ll post our popular Rising Stars poll, giving everyone the opportunity to vote for their favorite top executive to watch in wireless.

2020 FierceWireless Rising Star – Nokia's Sandro Tavares

For 2020 the FierceWireless editorial team has selected a diverse slate of wireless executives who are on the rise in their careers. We’re doling out the names of our winners, two per day, so that our readers have the time to enjoy reading their profiles. Next week, we’ll post our popular Rising Stars poll, giving everyone the opportunity to vote for their favorite top executive to watch in wireless.

KT SAT Showcases World’s First Satellite-5G Router Connectivity

KT SAT Co, the satellite-operating subsidiary of KT Corporation, South Korea’s largest telecommunications company, demonstrated the world’s first satellite-5G hybrid router transmission technology at the the SatelliteAsia 2020 exposition.

Daily Roundup: Cisco Buys App Security Startup

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.

Verizon, T-Mobile knock on smart home door

T-Mobile is offering Vivint smart home services in some markets, according to Wave7 Research, while Verizon is bundling Amazon smart home offerings into 5G Home.

Comcast plugs in upgraded Wi-Fi 'Pods'

New, faster Wi-Fi extenders are also being made available to the cable operator's technology and product syndication partners.

Amazon Timestream turbocharges IoT database performance

AWS claims new serverless system is 1,000 times faster than relational databases and one tenth the cost.

Dish Network Teases Software-Driven 5G Strategy

Dish Network isn’t the first greenfield network operator to embrace open radio access network (RAN) and cloud-native principles, but if it succeeds it could be one of the most pervasive 5G networks of its kind.

$25B 5G Market Opportunity Tantalizes Intel

Intel has an eye on market domination and not just in the semiconductor space, but in the exploding 5G market too, where the company sees a $25 billion opportunity by 2023.

Honeywell to test private 5G network

Multinational conglomerate Honeywell is joining the likes of Ford, Microsoft and Hitachi in the pursuit of private wireless network tests using 5G technologies.

Telstra launches 5G fixed wireless

The Telstra move has sparked discussion about whether 5G is a direct competitor to NBN.

CommScope swaps CEOs

Charles 'Chuck' Treadway succeeds the retiring Eddie Edwards and takes the helm following the integration of Arris, a company-wide focus on 5G and the need to get a grip on CommScope's struggling CPE business.

The UK gets another scaremongering report on 5G delays

The Centre for Policy Studies has weighed into the 5G debate with some highly questionable findings.

New report reveals how an expanding network is driving carriers to the edge

Technologies never roll out as quickly as expected. Barriers to implementation arise, exuberance turns to pragmatism and numbers are restated. Not so with 5G.

Cisco Buys Kubernetes Security, DevOps Startup Portshift

Cisco reached a deal to acquire Portshift, a 2-year-old startup that developed a Kubernetes-based platform to secure containers and serverless applications.

Eurobites: O2 road-tests satellite 5G for connected cars

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Elisa goes with Nokia for 5G RAN; Colt chooses SSE for 100G action; Proximus fires up eSIMs; Enea acquires Aptilo.

Drahi’s Altice takeover plan hits a road bump

A shareholder in Altice Europe said Drahi's buyout offer significantly undervalues the company.

SDxCentral’s Top 10 Articles — September 2020

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

Rakuten Mobile launches 5G service, but only in a few areas

Rakuten Mobile today launched its 5G service in parts of six prefectures in Japan, and in conjunction it announced a new Rakuten 5G smartphone. The 5G launch was originally planned for June, but the company delayed it due to Covid-19.

FCC moves forward on 3.45-3.55 GHz

The FCC voted on Wednesday to move forward on opening up mid-band spectrum in the upper 3.1-3.55 GHz band for commercial services, including 5G.

Germany set to tighten restrictions on Huawei

A report in the German press claims that the government is going to impose new restrictions on Huawei’s involvement in the 5G network that amount to a ban in all but name.

FCC votes to free up 4.9 GHz band for states

The FCC voted 3-2 on Wednesday to expand access to the 4.9 GHz band by giving states the chance to lease the spectrum to commercial entities, electric utilities and others – and both sides of the aisle cited the interests of public safety as a motivating factor.

Raynovich: AT&T, DriveNets deployment is bad news for Cisco

In a shocker, AT&T put out a press release this week saying it has embraced a white box approach to its core routing networking using a combination of DriveNets routing software, Broadcom Jericho2 silicon, and UfiSpace hardware.

Lumen snags its first edge compute customer, adds VMware to WAN

After announcing its edge compute strategy last year, Lumen (formerly CenturyLink) turned up its first customer this month on one of its edge nodes.

AT&T’s Fuetsch talks about Airship and the telco cloud

Speaking at the Open Networking and Edge Summit (ONES) this week, AT&T Chief Technology Officer of Network Services Andre Fuetsch said that AT&T has deployed its Network Cloud 315 times to date.

VMware rounds out SASE platform, builds new tools for WFH

With the Covoid-19 pandemic altering the workplace, VMware announced its Future-Ready Workforce solutions along with updates to its SASE and SD-WAN solutions.

UK hollowcore fibre startup Lumenisity goes to market

A UK company at the forefront of a new type of fibre optic technology has come out of stealth mode and launched its first commercial products.

Consolidation in US broadband as PE firm looks to exit

Cable One has agreed to pay $574.1 million in cash for a big stake in rural broadband group Mega Broadband Investments (MBI).

Rakuten launches its cheap and cheerful 5G service

Disruptive Japanese telco Rakuten Mobile has unveiled its 5G offering and, as expected, its significantly undercuts the competition.

Budding cyber crims can now enrol at ‘hacker university’

For a one-off fee of $125, you too can become one of those scumbags who preys on elderly Internet users and small online businesses.

2020 FierceWireless Rising Star — Ericsson's Erik Simonsson

For 2020 the FierceWireless editorial team has selected a diverse slate of wireless executives who are on the rise in their careers. We’re doling out the names of our winners, two per day, so that our readers have the time to enjoy reading their profiles. Next week, we’ll post our popular Rising Stars poll, giving everyone the opportunity to vote for their favorite top executive to watch in wireless.

2020 FierceWireless Rising Star — Rakuten Mobile's Rahul Atri

For 2020 the FierceWireless editorial team has selected a diverse slate of wireless executives who are on the rise in their careers. We’re doling out the names of our winners, two per day, so that our readers have the time to enjoy reading their profiles. Next week, we’ll post our popular Rising Stars poll, giving everyone the opportunity to vote for their favorite top executive to watch in wireless.

Telus VP Bernard Bureau: Embracing open RAN

Bernard Bureau, VP of network and architecture strategy at Telus, talks about why Telus is keen to support open RAN and what it expects from vendors.

Dish Network: The edge is 'everywhere'

Dish Network's Marc Rouanne said the company is working to design its coming 5G network so that customers can run network services wherever they wish.

AT&T's Igal Elbaz: The advantages of a standalone 5G core

Igal Elbaz, AT&T's SVP of wireless and access technology, said AT&T would work on 'scaling' the standalone 5G technology throughout 2021.

GOP to Trump: Please don't nationalize 5G

An obscure Request For Information from the US Department of Defense has again set off alarms that President Trump is considering a nationalized 5G network.

Podcast: What's the story with Starlink?

This week: Light Reading's Mike Dano on what's going on with SpaceX's Starlink.

VMware Project Monterey Wrangles Disaggregated Compute

VMware yesterday took the wraps off Project Monterey, which aims to do for hardware what Project Pacific — what later became vSphere with Tanzu — did for Kubernetes.

Video strategies vary widely among indie operators

Some still see video as an important piece, while others are extracting themselves from the business to leave the mess of rocketing programming rates to OTT-TV providers.

France emerges as Europe's 5G laggard

Prices are high just two days into the country's 5G auction, and France already falls way behind other major European economies on 5G readiness.

Daily Roundup: VMware CEO's Top M&A Targets

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.

McAfee Finally Pulls Trigger, Joins Tech IPO Rush

McAfee finally pulled the trigger on its long-rumored initial public offering (IPO) this week. The security vendor is the latest in a string of tech companies seeking multi-hundred-million-dollar IPOs — or even multi-billion-dollar in the case of Snowflake — despite the pandemic-induced recession.

Chromecast with Google TV combo primes pump with Netflix bundle

Google Store bundle teams the new TV-connected streaming device with six months of Netflix for $89.99. New device sells for $49.99 per month on a standalone basis.

Rakuten Mobile Hits 5G Stride

Rakuten Mobile unwrapped its 5G network today, six months after activating its virtualized, cloud-native open radio access network (RAN) riding on 4G LTE.

NTT Docomo cracks open 5G fronthaul for carrier aggregation

Japanese operator demos 'multi-vendor' trial, using O-RAN fronthaul specs, with Fujitsu and NEC.

Commvault: ROT Data Drives Climate Change

Technology and data have never been more central to our lives, but this reliance has come at a cost.

VMware CEO: Developer Stack, Security, Automation Top M&A Targets

As VMware’s CEO since 2012, Pat Gelsinger has overseen more than 30 mergers and acquisitions (M&A). He arrived at the virtualization giant the same month it reached a deal to buy Nicira, which, a year later, birthed the wildly successful NSX networking platform. And yesterday during his VMworld keynote, Gelsinger announced an agreement to acquire SaltStack, a developer-focused, open-source automation platform.

Trilogy plants 4G seeds in North Dakota farm

A new precision agriculture program in North Dakota promises to use edge computing, AI and a private LTE network in CBRS spectrum to automatically eliminate weeds.

VMware Wraps AMD Hardware Encryption into vSphere

VMware announced support for AMD secure encrypted virtualization-encrypted state (SEV-ES) in the latest update to its vSphere virtualization platform.

Eurobites: French 5G auction hits €2.4B

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Ericsson uses 5G for remote coronavirus testing; EU could make tech titans share customer data with smaller rivals; Switzerland, UK lead European 5G charge.

Germany stops short of Huawei ban, but raises bar to entry

Germany looks set to strangle the China-based supplier in red tape as scrutiny is extended to the 5G RAN.

Rakuten is off to a slow 5G start

The service announced today looks slower than many had hoped, will not be widely available and brings little in the way of device choice or new features.

In race to V2X, wireless industry resurrects Chinese boogeyman

The US wireless industry is rallying around the C-V2X standard for car-to-car communications, and is warning that China could dominate the market if action isn't taken.

Arista Lifts Campus Services for Edge, IoT

Arista Networks today added new equipment and services to its Cognitive Campus line aimed at bridging the divide between wired and wireless access for IoT devices at the edge. 

U.S. Cellular preps for C-band tests

U.S. Cellular is asking for the FCC’s permission to conduct tests in the C-band frequency range of 3.7 – 3.8 GHz using equipment from Ericsson and Nokia.

LTE usage of T-Mobile’s 600 MHz doubled since last year – Tutela

Even as T-Mobile forges ahead with its 5G network rollout, the proportion of LTE data traffic supported by its 600 MHz spectrum more than doubled in the last 12 months, a new Tutela report shows.

Amazon has the world in the palm of its hand with its latest biometric device

Having won online retail, Amazon is increasingly looking to dominate the bricks and mortar world too, as the launch of a palm-reading device illustrates.

Verizon debuts all-in-one 5G Home CPE

Verizon executives have been talking about this for a while now – the new customer premises equipment (CPE) that is supposed to make its 5G Home fixed wireless access (FWA) product so much more compelling. Well, it’s finally arriving in eight cities, including two new cities in Verizon’s 5G Home Internet coverage area starting on October 1: Minneapolis and St. Paul.

Heynen: Mediacom’s 10G demo shows faster speeds are on the way

When it comes to delivering new speeds and services, cable operators tend to opt for conservative, incremental steps rather than wholesale upgrades and replacements. They often follow the path of least resistance and go with the technologies they know, rigorously tested and standardized, before they make any leap forward. That behavior has served them extremely well and made them by far the largest broadband providers in the North American market.

DataBank to buy zColo data centers from Zayo

DataBank announced on Tuesday that it has a definitive agreement in place to buy Zayo Holding's zColo data centers.The zColo data centers would bring 44 additional data centers into the DataBank portfolio, including 13 key interconnect facilities across 23 markets in Europe and the U.S.

Nokia wins 5G RAN deal with BT

In some good news for Nokia, the Finnish vendor signed a 5G radio access network (RAN) deal with BT, which will make Nokia BT’s largest equipment provider. The price tag of the new deal was not disclosed. 

VMware to acquire software automation vendor SaltStack

On the opening day of its virtual VMworld 2020 conference, VMware announced it would beef up its cloud automation capabilities by buying automation software company SaltStack.

T-Mobile’s 2.5 GHz live in 210 locations

Tracking towards its goal of deploying 2.5 GHz spectrum in thousands of towns and cities by year’s end, T-Mobile on Tuesday turned on the mid-band frequencies for 5G in 121 new locations.

Comcast Business survey: SMBs are bouncing back from Covid-19

Since March, small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) have borne the brunt of the Covid-19 crisis, but they're more prepared for a second wave, according to a report.

Microsoft lays out its plans for the telco cloud

Tech giant Microsoft has created a special bit of its cloud platform called Azure for Operators, on the back of recent strategic acquisitions.

Zzoomm secures £100 million for market town broadband

Zzoomm has sold an equity stake worth £100 million to Oaktree Capital Management to fund the next phase of its UK full fibre broadband rollout.

Nokia gets an unspecified amount of BT’s Huawei RAN swap-out

Finnish kit vendor Nokia is jubilant after signing a 5G RAN deal to become BT’s largest infrastructure partner.

NTT makes $40bn bid for mobile arm DoCoMo

Japanese telco group NTT has launched a ¥4.25 trillion ($40 billion) offer for the shares in mobile unit DoCoMo it doesn’t already own.

2020 FierceWireless Rising Star — Dish's John Swieringa

For 2020 the FierceWireless editorial team has selected a diverse slate of wireless executives who are on the rise in their careers. We’re doling out the names of our winners, two per day, so that our readers have the time to enjoy reading their profiles. Next week, we’ll post our popular Rising Stars poll, giving everyone the opportunity to vote for their favorite top executive to watch in wireless.

2020 FierceWireless Rising Star — Qualcomm's Ozge Koymen

For 2020 the FierceWireless editorial team has selected a diverse slate of wireless executives who are on the rise in their careers. We’re doling out the names of our winners, two per day, so that our readers have the time to enjoy reading their profiles. Next week, we’ll post our popular Rising Stars poll, giving everyone the opportunity to vote for their favorite top executive to watch in wireless.

FierceTelecom presents its 2020 class of Rising Stars

2020 is a year to be remembered on many levels. But in the telecom world, it's a year when internet connectivity took on a whole new significance as we all started working and learning from home. The Covid-19 crisis called particular attention to wired networks because these networks support Wi-Fi in the home.

Forcepoint Girds SASE for Internal Threats

Forcepoint today announced user activity monitoring and risk-based data loss prevention capabilities are coming to its secure access service edge (SASE) platform early next year.

Daily Roundup: VMware Bolsters SASE Security, Buys SaltStack

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.

VMware Tanzu Glides Into AWS, Eyes Oracle, Microsoft

VMware can’t stop pasting its Kubernetes-focused Tanzu platform across its various cloud offerings, with the latest move injecting the multi-cloud management tool into its wildly popular Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud platform with plans to further that integration into similar offerings on Oracle and Microsoft Azure.

Microsoft raises the stakes in telecom fight against AWS and Google

The software giant must persuade operators to entrust some of their most valuable systems to its public cloud.

Intel Catches Kubernetes Glow With Lightbits Labs Partnership

Intel scored some shiny new storage software today, announcing a strategic partnership with Lightbits Labs, the flash-based storage startup that provides non-volatile memory express (NVMe)-based persistent volume storage for Kubernetes.

NTT Reclaims DoCoMo Control for $40B

NTT DoCoMo is going back to its corporate roots in a $40 billion deal that will bring it under complete control of NTT. The Japanese telecommunications giant already owns 66% of the mobile operator, which it spun off in 1991.

Cable One swings deal for big piece of Mega Broadband

Cable One also has the option to acquire all of MBI, formed by the purchases of Vyve Broadband, Northland Communications and part of Eagle Communications, starting in 2023.

VMware Buys SaltStack, Boosts Open Source Automation

In what has become a VMworld tradition, VMware kicked off the annual event this morning by announcing an acquisition: SaltStack, an open-source based automation software provider.

Musk makes Starlink IPO guarantee to small investors

But they'll have to wait. If a listing does happen it won't be for at least 'several years.'

VMware, Nvidia Target AI Democratization

VMware and Nvidia kicked off VMworld 2020 with a new partnership that promises to accelerate enterprise adoption of artificial intelligence (AI). The partnership will see the companies tie Nvidia’s GPU Cloud (NGC) hub — a repository for AI application frameworks — into VMware’s vSphere, Cloud Foundation, and Tanzu platforms.

NTT to reacquire DoCoMo for hefty $38B

NTT will pay 4.3 trillion yen ($38B), a 41% premium, to bring DoCoMo back in-house, the largest such deal in Japan.

VMware Adds SASE Security Partners, Touts XDR Strategy

VMware integrated Menlo Security technologies into its secure access service edge (SASE) platform and started talking about its extended detection and response (XDR) strategy among several other security updates announced today at the virtual VMworld event.

Eurobites: Finland's Elisa extends 5G partnership with Ericsson

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Orange trials private network with Schneider Electric, launches $30 smartphone in Africa; Proximus reaches Ostend with its fiber rollout; Google still dominates the price-comparison market in Europe.

Nokia lands 5G deal with BT to start replacing Huawei

The Finnish vendor scores one of its most important European deals yet with the UK's biggest operator.

Huawei mopping up stakes in domestic chip suppliers – report

Chinese vendor's Habo Investment arm is said to have acquired stakes in 17 local chip companies in the past year.

Samsung Brings 5G Indoors with New Commercial 5G mmWave Small Cell for In-building Use

Samsung Electronics. Co. Ltd. today unveiled a new integrated 5G mmWave small cell for indoor use as part of the company’s full suite of 5G in-building products, Samsung Link.

AT&T, Verizon pay $116 in fraud settlement case in California

Verizon and AT&T will pay a combined $116 million to the state of California as settlement in a whistleblower’s case that was brought in 2012. The case alleged that Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint did not abide by their contracts with California agencies in which they were supposed to inform government customers which rate plans would result in the lowest possible cost.

Uber good to go in London after winning appeal

The long-running saga of Uber vs Transport for London has been finally decided in favour of the former, meaning Londoner’s access to cheap taxis is secured.

Spotlight is on DriveNets with AT&T's deployment

After working behind the scenes with AT&T for more than three years, the spotlight was on DriveNets on Monday. AT&T acknowledged for the first time that DriveNets is indeed providing core-networking routing software for its next-gen core network.

Mavenir acquires ip.access to add 2G/3G support for open RAN

Mavenir has acquired ip.access, the U.K.-based small cell provider specializing in 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G-ready solutions. The purchase price was not disclosed.

AT&T follows Verizon into the mix with customized unlimited data

AT&T today announced customers can pick different unlimited plans for each line on their account, following a similar strategy by competitor Verizon for mixing and matching unlimited data options.

Samsung taps Red Hat’s container expertise for 5G RAN, core

Samsung is tapping IBM’s Red Hat for its container expertise. Samsung wants to put its 5G network software on Red Hat’s OpenShift container orchestration platform.

Microsoft draws a bead on telcos with Azure for Operators

Microsoft is taking direct aim at telcos by announcing Azure for Operators, which includes a carrier-grade cloud platform and edge compute capabilities as well as a developer ecosystem.

Rogers’ C$3 billion Cogeco sweetener falls on stony ground

Canadian telco Rogers has pledged to invest C$3 billion in Quebec, including 5G spend…but only if it is able to buy broadband operator Cogeco.

Mavenir buys small cell specialist ip.access to fill-out OpenRAN offering

Telecoms cloud software vendor Mavenir has acquired ip.access for an undisclosed sum to add more strings to its OpenRAN bow.

Consolidation is on the agenda again in Spain

Talk of a merger between Vodafone and Masmovil has resurfaced – and been denied – but market watchers in Spain remain convinced that consolidation is back on the agenda.

Vapor IO sticks with edge center deployment despite Covid

It’s been more than six months since Vapor IO announced it was going to build out its Kinetic Edge platform in 36 markets by the end of 2021, allowing its customers to deploy edge computing in top metropolitan markets across the U.S., with a projected reach of as much as 70% of the population.

China becomes increasingly radicalised in response to reported SMIC ban

It looks like the US is imposing export restrictions on Chinese chip fab SMIC, which could be the last straw that tips China into a full-blown political response.

2020 FierceWireless Rising Star — AT&T's Jason Inskeep

For 2020 the FierceWireless editorial team has selected a diverse slate of wireless executives who are on the rise in their careers. We’re doling out the names of our winners, two per day, so that our readers have the time to enjoy reading their profiles. Next week, we’ll post our popular Rising Stars poll, giving everyone the opportunity to vote for their favorite top executive to watch in wireless.

2020 FierceWireless Rising Star — Intel's Dan Rodriguez

For 2020 the FierceWireless editorial team has selected a diverse slate of  wireless executives who are on the rise in their careers. We’re doling out the names of our winners, two per day, so that our readers have the time to enjoy reading their profiles. Next week, we’ll post our popular Rising Stars poll, giving everyone the opportunity to vote for their favorite top executive to watch in wireless. 

2020 FierceTelecom Rising Star — Cisco's Bob Everson

The FierceTelecom editorial team is proud to announce our second annual Rising Stars series, in which we’re profiling up-and-coming executives in the telecom industry. We’ve selected a slate of executives whom we think are on the rise in 2020. We’ve been doling out the names of our winners so that our readers have the time to enjoy reading their profiles. And later this week, we’ll post a Rising Stars poll, giving everyone the opportunity to vote for their favorite top executive to watch in the FierceTelecom ecosystem. We hope you enjoy the series!

NaaS demystified

Click here to read the full article.

Wi-Fi 7: The Next Generation in the Evolution of Wi-Fi

This article is part of a two part series, click here to access the first article “Wi-Fi 6: Expanding the role of Wi-Fi in the Enterprise.”

Juniper Networks Rounds Up Netrounds

Juniper Networks acquired assurance testing vendor Netrounds for an undisclosed sum. Juniper plans to wrap Netrounds into its WAN portfolio and enable service providers to ensure end-user experiences.

DriveNets confirmed by AT&T for cloud-native core routing project

AT&T confirms it deployed its disaggregated core routing platform with technology from Broadcom, DriveNets and UfiSpace.

Public cloud providers seek closer collaboration with telcos

Google's membership in the Linux Foundation Network and Microsoft's launch of Azure for Operators both underscore the importance cloud providers see in working with telcos.

Microsoft's pitch to telcos for 5G and beyond

The name Azure of Operators doesn't sound exciting, but it represents a way for carriers to partner with a cloud provider that has been quite serious about putting communications and the cloud together.

Samsung Advances Innovation in Cloud-Based Private 5G Network Solutions on Microsoft Azure

Samsung today announced an agreement to collaborate with Microsoft on an end-to-end, cloud-based private 5G network solution. As a part of this collaboration, the two companies plan to advance the virtualization of 5G solutions, which will include the deployment of Samsung’s virtualized RAN, virtualized Core, and Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC) technologies on Microsoft Azure.

Rogers pledges to plow $3B into Quebec, retain Cogeco brand

Proposed five-year financial plan includes accelerated 5G coverage and $1.5 billion in network investments. Rogers has also promised to keep Cogeco's headquarters in Montreal.

Daily Roundup: Arista Buys Awake Security

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.

AT&T Taps DriveNets for Core Routing Software Deployment

AT&T’s network backbone is now, at least partially, running on disaggregated, core routing software from DriveNets, CTO Andre Fuetsch announced today at the Open Networking & Edge Summit.

Rogers pledges to plow $5B into Quebec, retain Cogeco brand

Proposed five-year financial plan includes accelerated 5G coverage and $1.5 billion in network investments. Rogers has also promised to keep Cogeco's headquarters in Montreal.

Eurobites: Go easy on us or we'll miss the fiber deadline, BT tells UK government

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Three Ireland switches on 5G; Oaktree buys majority stake in Zzoomm; Arm jobs under threat, says UK politician.

Mavenir Acquires Small Cells Vendor ip.access

Mavenir today announced it has acquired ip.access to add 2G and 3G capabilities to its open radio access network (RAN) portfolio and boost its small cells offering. 

Juniper buys Netrounds to hammer networks into shape

Acquisition of Swedish network testing and monitoring company will strengthen its line-up of automated WAN products, it says.

Courtroom drama keeps TikTok in Apple and Google app stores

Late Sunday night, TikTok received a reprieve when a federal judge blocked a Trump order for Apple and Google to remove it from their US app stores.

Broadcom looks set to avoid monster fine in Europe – report

US firm's plan to ditch customer 'incentives' to buy its chips appears to find favor with the European Commission.

India considers appealing Hague order in Vodafone tax row

Despite the Permanent Court of Arbitration ruling retrospective tax laws unfairly penalized the telecoms giant, the Indian government may still appeal.

SMIC added to entity list as China sees chip mini-boom

US export restrictions have sparked a semiconductor mini-boom for China as it seeks to reduce dependence on imports – but the chip rush has some observers worried.

Local broadcast: The underdog of the streaming wars

Here's why local broadcasters could emerge as major players in the video streaming content market, thanks to the new ATSC 3.0 broadcast TV standard now being rolled out throughout the US.

Arista Acquires Awake for NDR Security

Arista Networks will acquire Awake Security for an undisclosed amount in a deal that gives the networking vendor a network detection and response (NDR) security platform that Awake CEO Rahul Kashyap bragged has stolen customers from Arista’s arch-rival Cisco.

Roku speaks Apple's language, rolls new products

Roku unveils two new streaming devices, an operating system update and support for the AV1 codec as the OTT retail platform market heats up for the holidays.

Who Will VMware Buy to Plug SASE Security Holes?

VMware has a gaping hole in its secure access service edge (SASE) stack. And while VMware has been happy to partner with security vendors to plug these holes, Sanjay Uppal, SVP and general manager of VeloCloud, has said the company plans to acquire a secure web gateway, cloud access security broker, and remote browser isolation.

COVID-19 accelerates race to the cloud – report

Zoom, Cisco Webex, Microsoft Teams and more are all benefiting from the enforced need to stay at home.

Red Hat Scores Samsung OpenShift 5G Deal

Samsung inched closer to its open RAN vision today, landing an agreement with Red Hat that makes it the first major radio access network (RAN) vendor to publicly build 5G services on OpenShift.

Mavenir buys ip.access to plug its 2G, 3G deficit

The US open RAN specialist has decided it is time to get with the 2G and 3G program.