Will Cisco Jumpstart 5G Open RAN Aspirations Via M&A?

Cisco has repositioned many parts of its business to target growth opportunities in 5G, but one thing it doesn’t have is cellular radio access network (RAN) gear. However, the advancements and hype of open RAN technology has pushed Cisco closer to that threshold alongside its hardware and software for orchestration, 5G cores, radio backhaul, edge computing, and enterprise applications. 

Nvidia, AMD Gun for Intel as Arm Lurks in the Shadows

The semiconductor industry has been ablaze with activity this year as the market heats up and established chipmakers face new degrees of competition and a consolidated market. Nowhere is this more evident than in the stark contrasts between Intel, AMD, and Nvidia’s latest earnings reports.

EU backs Italy’s FiberCop project

The European Commission has given the green light to TIM’s FiberCop plan, which it says does not raise competition concerns.

UK sets up new watchdog to take on Facebook, Google, etc

As day follows night, what happens in the US usually happens a little bit later here in the UK. The latest example: increased regulatory scrutiny of Internet giants.

House of Lords wants UK to copy Aussie media code

The largely superfluous second house of UK Parliament reckons journalists need more help than ever and has some bright ideas on what to do about it.

Comcast preps higher rates, hidden fees for New Year's Day

No. 1 US cable operator plans to raise monthly rates for both cable TV and Internet service on Jan. 1, along with its 'hidden' broadcast TV and regional sports network fees.

India’s Airtel gets its mojo back in 2020

India's Bharti Airtel has significantly consolidated its position as it puts up an intense fight against Jio for market leadership.

UK launches new regulator to go after tech titans

From April, the UK's new Digital Markets Unit will go after the biggest tech firms and enforce a new code about how they deal with rivals and users.

Albany Marine base to sport 'made in the USA' 5G network

The US Department of Defense's test network is part of a $600 million project that is intended to strengthen the US in its 5G competitiveness.

Eurobites: Proximus seals JV for Flanders fiber rollout

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Plymouth hosts 5G marine testbed; Ericsson upgrades Mozambique's TMCEL; Swisscom spotlights 5G startups.

Will IIC technology save America's 5G?

NTIA has floated a technology called IIC that would allow US military commanders to tell operators like AT&T and Verizon when they can – and can't – use government spectrum for 5G.

It’s a fair FiberCop, says Europe’s competition watchdog

European Commission sees no problem in FiberCop's ownership structure and its absorption of Telecom Italia's last-mile network assets.

WiCipedia: Is Singapore the land of opportunity for women in tech?

This week in our WiC roundup: Sometimes jobs in the White House can actually lead to good; is Singapore Silicon Valley 2.0?; validation and recognition for LGBTQ tech workers; and more.

Axiata rebounds but warns of COVID-19 pressures

Southeast Asian telco group Axiata has bounced back from its mid-year pandemic slump, doubling Q3 earnings on revenue growth and stronger cost management.

Huawei founder says Honor sale sets it free

Ren Zhengfei urges Honor employees to turn the budget brand into Huawei's biggest rival.

TIBCO CIO Talks Diversity, Black Female Leadership

Black women continue to be woefully underrepresented in corporate leadership. And when it comes to the technology industry, which is largely a man’s world – and a white man’s world at that – women of color made up about 11% of the computing and mathematical workforce in 2019 with Black women only comprising just 3% of the total, according to the National Center For Women & Information Technology 2020 study. That number shrinks to less than 0.5% when looking at Black women in tech leadership positions.

Europe dabbles with big data protectionism

The European Commission seems to think that if it improves data sharing within the bloc, that might give it a better shot at taking on US big tech.

As India bans more Chinese apps, Apple reportedly moves manufacturing to Vietnam

The trade war with the US continues to take its toll on Chinese business interests through a combination of sanctions and retreats.

Softbank and Subaru merge…cars onto a highway using C-V2X

The long and winding road to 5G-assisted driving passed another milestone this week, thanks to Japan-based Softbank and car maker Subaru.

UK government downgrades gigabit broadband pledge, of course

The UK government unveiled its latest spending plans, which have had to be revised due to the breath-taking cost of shutting down the entire country.

Orange 5G to go live in 15 data-hungry cities on 3 December

French telco group Orange has revealed the launch-day locations of its 5G network, which it will switch on next Thursday.

Orange names date for 5G launch

Commercial rollout slated to start December 3. Without additional 5G capacity, said Orange, current networks will reach saturation point by 2022.

ByteDance's TikTok sale gets yet another extra week

ByteDance has received a short extension to sell TikTok's US operations, but its real strategy appears to be to wait for the Biden administration.

Telstra A$50M fine for 'unconscionable' sales to indigenous customers

...and China Mobile's in trouble too.

Swiss Salt steers steady course in Q3

Iliad-owned operator expresses confidence about the future thanks to 'healthy core business momentum.'

Lumen opens edge computing center for test drives

As the company transitions from old-school telco to cloud edge provider, it is deploying cloud edge nodes across the US and overseas.

Eurobites: UK rows back on gigabit ambitions

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Telefónica edges towards Andalusia; Nokia helps Graz cut it as a smart city; Tele2 beefs up IoT offer with Cisco.

AT&T's Cricket no longer operating corporate stores

AT&T has shifted its Cricket prepaid brand to a 100% authorized retailer model, according to Wave7 Research. That means the phones and services that are sold through brick and mortar stores are strictly through dealers and not corporate-owned stores.

Vodafone and Ericsson try to make sure drones don’t crash into each other

The utopia in which swarms of drones do everything for us can only be achieved if you can stop them colliding. Thankfully Vodafone and Ericsson are on the case.

ZTE petition denied, FCC affirms it poses security risk

The FCC on Tuesday affirmed a designation that deems ZTE a national security risk to telecom networks and supply chain, denying the Chinese vendor’s petition to reconsider.

Report: IBM lines up 10K job cuts across Europe

IBM is planning to cull about 10,000 jobs in Europe in order to lower costs ahead of its split into two businesses.

BT preps its network cloud for global deployment next year

While hookups between telcos and hyperscale cloud providers have become almost run of the mill, BT has been working away on its BT Network Cloud for some time.

Business models for 5G Edge look scary for operators

As part of 5G, there’s a big movement to deploy thousands of new edge compute locations to bring applications closer to consumers. The topic will be discussed on Tuesday, December 1, at FierceWireless’ 5G Blitz Week.

FCC declines ZTE’s national security threat appeal – there’s a shock

Chinese vendor ZTE asked US telecoms regulator FCC to reconsider its designation as a national security threat, but the FCC said no.

AT&T vs. T-Mobile open RAN strategies: Special Report

Open Radio Access Network (RAN) has been in the spotlight for much of this year, but a lot of other things are happening with the RAN.

There’s a lot of money in private mobile networks

Private network revenues will exceed US$64 billion by 2030, according to relatively new figures from ABI Research.

Trump’s departure opens the door for increased social media censorship

Departing US President Trump attempted to push back against selective censorship by social media platforms. They’re less likely to face such resistance from Biden.

Enel to replicate Open Fiber model overseas

Enel will look to build wholesale fibre networks in markets outside of Italy, according to its CEO, who also indicated that the sale of its domestic Open Fiber business could be just days away.

Nokia's new CEO may face leadership brain drain

Several top Nokia executives are heading for the door, creating a challenge for Nokia's new CEO, Pekka Lundmark, as he works to assert control.

Daily Roundup: VMware SaaS Skyrockets

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SK Telecom unveils next-gen AI chip, and ambitions

South Korea's SK Telecom has data center and AI-as-a-service ambitions for its new AI chip, 1.5 times faster than a GPU but half the price.

Podcast: Cogent's Dave Schaeffer on building a better backbone

Cogent, one of the world's largest ISPs, offers customers and competitors the ability to create their own global network, across its entire footprint, while paying on a per-usage basis.

Vodafone, Másmovil tie-up speculation resurfaces

A Spanish joint venture is on the cards, says El Economista, but Másmovíl flatly denies it's negotiating anything with Vodafone.

Going the virtual CMTS route

New Light Reading e-book sponsored by Harmonic highlights some of the early advances made by cable operators and vendors in virtualizing the industry's access networks and expanding their capacity.

IBM Slashes 10,000 Jobs, 20% of European Workforce

IBM plans to cut about 10,000 jobs, or 20% of its staff, in Europe as it prepares to spin-off its lagging legacy business units, and reorient itself as a hybrid-cloud powerhouse. 

SK Telecom Unveils AI Chip, Services Push

SK Telecom (SKT) unveiled its internally developed artificial intelligence (AI) processor today and shed some light on its AI ambitions.

Rakuten and Dish Dismiss ‘One Throat to Choke’ Rebuttals

One of the most common rebuttals lobbed at open radio access networks (RAN) is the perceived absence of “one throat to choke.” Executives at Dish Network and Rakuten Mobile say the argument is bunk.

Huawei pivots to China’s smart car market

A week after disposing of its low-tier handset unit, Huawei has reshaped its consumer business to target the fast-growing smart car market in the world.

Drahi forges ahead with Altice Europe offer

Offer for the owner of France's SFR and Portugal's MEO to run until January 21.

Eurobites: Vodafone, Ericsson trial safe-skies tech for drones

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Nokia and A1 switch on private network for Siemens; BT and Transatel renew MVNOs partnership; TIM and Google combine on 'Voice Smart' calling.

More Americans bundle streaming services

In the latest study by Parks Associates, more than three fifths (61%) of US consumers subscribe to at least two OTT services and nearly half (45%) subscribe to three or more.

Report: Verizon, NYC settle six-year broadband dustup

Verizon has settled a six-year dispute with the city of New York by agreeing to wire 500,000 additional homes for high-speed internet service.

Dish-related DEs again denied $3.3B in bidding credits

The FCC on Monday announced it has once again determined that SNR Wireless and Northstar Wireless are ineligible for about $3.3 billion in bidding credits sought during the AWS-3 auction.

Orange Business Services embraces AWS to fuel cloud innovation

Orange Business Services announced a deeper relationship with Amazon Web Services that was designed to accelerate customers' move to the cloud.

Report: Global telco cloud revenue will grow to $29B by 2025

According to a report by ABI Research, global telco cloud revenue will reach $29.3 billion by 2025, which is a marked increase from this year's $8.7 billion. The five-year CARGR for global telco cloud revenue is 27%.

Nokia’s Marcus Weldon stepping down

On the heels of an organizational restructuring last month under new CEO Pekka Lundmark, Nokia’s technology chief and head of Bell Labs Marcus Weldon is stepping down. 

CWA seeks conditions on Frontier's bankruptcy reorganization

The Communications Workers of America (CWA) is seeking conditions be imposed by a Connecticut government agency in regards to Frontier's Chapter 11 reorganization plan.

KPN’s fibre-backed growth plan is very traditional telco

KPN is banking on network expansion, especially in fibre, to drive a return to growth next year.

Vodafone UK doubles down on IoT

UK telco Vodafone is seeking to breath life into its IoT strategy with the launch of a new range of services for businesses.

Needless new telecoms law confirms UK Huawei decision was political

The UK government is proposing a new law that will fine telcos for not doing what they’re already compelled to do.

Germany sees ‘great interest’ in private 5G networks

Germany’s telecoms regulator has awarded 88 licences for private 5G networks in the past 12 months and expects many more applications to come.

Dell Tech ‘Cautiously Optimistic’ About 2021 IT Rebound

Dell Technologies’ brass today shared cautious optimism about a global IT rebound in 2021, but the resurgence of COVID-19 infections in the U.S. and globally could delay that revival. 

Two Parallel Wireless founders exit to start A5G Networks

Rajesh Mishra, Parallel Wireless' CTO, and Kaitki Agarwal, Parallel's chief product officer, are leaving the company to start A5G Networks, which will focus on open RAN orchestration.

Startup Xcom looks to test advanced MIMO using open RAN

A startup backed by some of Qualcomm's former top executives is looking to test advanced MIMO technology running on open RAN specifications.

VMware Subscription, SaaS Revenue Skyrockets 44%, Outpaces On-Prem

VMware subscription and software-as-a-service (SaaS) revenue surpassed its on-premises license revenue for the first time this quarter, CEO Pat Gelsinger said on VMware’s third-quarter fiscal 2021 earnings call today.

Daily Roundup: Nutanix Soars Through Q1

Wishing your 5G connection didn’t act like bad airport WiFi? Here are today’s top stories from SDxCentral to take your mind off it. Also, make sure to subscribe to our daily newsletters to get these stories in your inbox.

Small Quebec operator boosts bandwidth, broadband speeds

Coopérative de Câblodistribution de L'Arrière Pays (CCAP) has increased its top broadband speeds by 10X and HD and 4K channels by 34% after adopting Adara's bandwidth reclamation solution.

Mavenir's mobile core business hits the big time

Mavenir is now one of the world's five largest suppliers of mobile core networking technology, which is essentially the brain of a wireless network.

COVID-19 led to global mobile malware outbreak – report

Mobile malware saw a significant increase in the third quarter, with people spending more time on their mobiles, and Asia at the center of the outbreak.

Splunk Buys Flowmill to Plug Network Visibility Hole

Splunk will buy yet another visibility and monitoring company, Flowmill, which follows two acquisitions last month and brings its two-year buying spree total to six startups.

Airtel wants a new regulator to speed up fiber deployment

Indian service provider suggests setting up new Optic Fiber Regulatory Authority for the 'faster, transparent and economic rollout of fiber' in the country.

Intel CEO Calls On Biden to Protect U.S. Tech Interests

In an open letter to President-elect Joe Biden, Intel CEO Bob Swan pressed the incoming administration to take steps to invest in emerging technologies and empower U.S. manufacturing.

Hefty fines for UK operators flouting Huawei restrictions

Telecommunications Bill advocates fines of up to 10% of turnover for failure to phase out 'high-risk vendors' – and $133,000 per day for repeat offenders.

Zenlayer Selects Juniper for Cloud Build Out

Cloud services provider Zenlayer renewed its commitment to Juniper Networks’ stack today, announcing plans to roll out the vendor’s appliances across its global backbone as part of a cloud services expansion.

Matrixx Dives Into HPE GreenLake

Matrixx Software is the latest third-party vendor to dive into Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s GreenLake platform. The company will offer its Matrixx Digital Commerce platform to communications service providers via HPE’s cloud-services platform.

Eurobites: Orange cozies up to AWS cloud

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: KPN maps out the way ahead; Vodafone suffers German outage; MTS, Ericsson combine on private network for Russian mine.

Telus Selects Nokia for 5G Services Push

Canadian network operator Telus today tapped Nokia to power some of its 5G services offerings. The partnership will see Telus deploy Nokia’s subscriber data management and policy controller, NetAct network management, LTE indoor picocells, and IP edge routers.

Vodafone UK builds up IoT offering with IoT.nxt

The UK-based operator signals progress with ambition to take South African startup's IoT solutions global.

Tiscali gets ready to enter the FiberCop tangle

Broadband player prepares to activate customers on assets held by FiberCop, part of Italy's plan to create a single national network.

Mint Mobile expands in Best Buy stores

With the Thanksgiving holiday nearly upon us – although not quite like years past – it seems only fitting to use a turkey dinner analogy when talking about new moves by Mint Mobile.

Verizon, T-Mobile dominate 5G conversation, AT&T lags

Moffett Nathanson hosted a 5G event earlier this month, which wasn’t open to media, but Craig Moffett posted a lengthy blog with the top takeaways. There were a few things that seemed particularly interesting.

Vodafone targets net zero carbon emissions by 2040

Vodafone announced it has committed to reducing the company’s total global carbon emissions to "net zero" by 2040, which cut 10 years off of its original deadline.

Dish taps Mavenir for RCS messaging services

In addition to using Mavenir software in its radio access network (RAN), Dish Network is tapping the Texas-based vendor’s cloud-native messaging platform for customer support services.

T-Mobile’s Ray predicts 5G claims will haunt rivals

For years, T-Mobile suffered from poor coverage in the U.S. Now in the 5G world, it’s shouting from the rooftops about its coverage – again and again.

Lumen expands partnership with Zoom

After first announcing they were working together in September, Lumen and Zoom have expanded their partnership.

Marek’s Take: The biggest turkeys of 2020

It’s that time of the year when everyone’s thoughts turn to turkey and all the trimmings. And while my Thanksgiving gathering (and the size of my turkey) will be much smaller this year because of surging Covid-19 cases here in Denver, that isn’t stopping me from taking a look back at some of the other turkeys this year. I’m talking about the bad decisions and misfired strategies that made headlines over the past eleven months. 

Charter CFO: Bring on the broadband competition

Whether its more fiber deployments by AT&T or T-Mobile offering fixed wireless broadband in rural areas, Charter is ready for the competition.

Nokia lands global IoT deal with China Mobile

China Mobile IoT (CMIoT) has picked Nokia to help it with its global enterprise IoT offering.

Iliad can Play with Europe’s big boys

Play’s shareholders have overwhelming backed a takeover offer from Iliad, leaving the French firm in a position to call itself one of the biggest mobile groups in Europe.

Tiscali’s network to be ‘streamlined’ after TIM deal

TIM and Tiscali have signed contracts governing their agreement to jointly invest in the FiberCorp network project.

California schools bridge digital divide with CBRS

Late night alarms from Grayson Elementary were pulling Jeff Menge out into the night even before the pandemic hit. “It turned out to be that students were hopping the fence to sit inside where there are tables, just to be able to access the student Wi-Fi to be able to do their homework,” he said. Menge is assistant superintendent of business services at Patterson Joint Unified School District, which includes students from eastern Santa Clara County and western Stanislaus County, California. More than 70% of the student body is classified as low-income. “A lot of them either don’t have access to internet or can’t afford it,” Menge said.

OneWeb is back in business, thanks to $500 million of UK taxpayer money

Beleaguered communications satellite company OneWeb has emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy with fresh cash and a new CEO.

T-Mobile tweaks TVision for the holidays

The promo that combines T-Mobile's TVision Live and Vibe packages has no specified end date and arrives amid complaints from programmers.

Nutanix Stock Soars on Q1 Fiscal 2021 Beat

Nutanix beat Wall Street estimates and reported first-quarter fiscal 2021 revenue of $312.8 million. While this is a slight (0.6%) decrease compared to the $314.8 million in revenue the software vendor posted in Q1 fiscal 2020, it represents a strong start to 2021 despite the lingering COVID-19-related uncertainty across the globe, Nutanix CEO Dheeraj Pandey said on a call with investors.

Daily Roundup: Dish Taps Mavenir

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Dish has clear path to AWS-3 victory – analysts

'The market should understand that Dish and the DEs have a good chance of prevailing in court,' according to some financial analysts. At issue is billions in AWS-3 spectrum.

India's state-owned telco BSNL 4G tender under a cloud

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has told India's Department of Telecommunications that domestic vendors' bids for its 4G tender are unviable as they come in at 90% more than those from global vendors.

Unicom preps for Winter Olympics with mmWave trials

5G lacks clear business models and its performance falls short in uplink, latency, security and energy efficiency, according to China Unicom's Chi Yongsheng.

Edge Definitions Suffer Messy Complexities

The edge, or edge computing, is messy. Defining what it is, where it exists, and what it does is very much determined by the perspective of those using or selling it. 

Comcast to bring broadband data plan to Fios territory

Operator confirms it will extend usage-based data policy and unlimited data option to its northeast division starting next year, matching up with policies already in place in the MSO's central and west divisions.

What's next for CSPs?

Now that communications service providers have re-asserted their relevance, they have an unparalleled opportunity to boost their influence and involvement in the post-COVID world.

DataBank primps for 5G operators' edge needs

Following millions of dollars in investments in 2020, DataBank is planning for more than a dozen data center buildouts next year.

Google Cloud Scores Enterprise Win With ABB

Google Cloud scored another major enterprise win with Swiss technology firm ABB Information Systems moving some of its workloads to the No. 3 cloud provider.

Dish Taps Mavenir for 5G Messaging, Chatbots

Dish Network is once again leaning on software partner Mavenir as the company builds out its 5G network. The greenfield operator today announced it would deploy Mavenir’s rich communications service (RCS) and messaging-as-a-service technologies to bolster its 5G services offerings.

Eurobites: OneWeb emerges from Chapter 11, hires new CEO

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: why the UK needs a Brexit data deal; Nokia lands China Mobile IoT contract; Vodafone targets net zero carbon by 2040.

Juniper and 128 Technology: WAN big happy family?

Once the process of bringing 128 into Juniper amps up next year, it will be clearer how this acquisition repositions Juniper in the WAN space, and whether this move can improve Juniper's service provider business.