Money Moves: January 2021

Here are some of the most prominent venture capital and merger and acquisition news items from the past month. If you’d like SDxCentral to report on your company’s VC or M&A activity in our monthly Money Moves section, or if you have any tips on that activity, please send the information to Sydney Sawaya (ssawaya@sdxcentral.com).

Masergy Wraps Cisco Webex Into Managed Services

Managed SD-WAN service provider Masergy expanded its unified communications-as-a-service offerings this week to include Cisco’s popular Webex video conferencing service.

Airspan and Foxconn use LTE and CBRS to operate smart factory

Service providers see smart factories as a promising new use case for mobile networks, typically enabled by 5G. But the world’s largest electronics contract manufacturer has opened a smart factory that uses 4G LTE to control automated guided vehicles (AGVs) used in commercial manufacturing.

Ligado to trial Rakuten’s RCP for 5G private networks

Ligado Networks plans to take the Rakuten Communications Platform (RCP) for a spin, agreeing to co-develop a 5G mobile private network solution for enterprises using Rakuten’s open RAN approach and Ligado’s licensed L-band spectrum.

WIA chief shares concerns about C-band’s $80B price tag

Count the president of the Wireless Infrastructure Association (WIA) among those concerned about the $80.1 billion committed by bidders in the C-band auction. With that kind of capital outlay, how much money will be left for the actual 5G deployment using the spectrum?

Rakuten Mobile reports losses, increases capex estimate

Rakuten Mobile reported that 2.5 million people have applied for its offer of one year of free mobile service. The company has extended this offer to up to 3 million people, but it seems to be having a hard time finding that many takers.

US starts to panic about the chip crisis it did so much to create

It turns out that when governments muck about with markets there are sometimes unintended consequences.

Millicom maintains no dividend policy due to gloomy outlook

Millicom did its best to talk up a fairly weak full-year financial performance on Thursday, but did not attempt to conceal the difficulties it will face in its various operating markets this year.

Altran and Blue Planet team up on automation for 5G and cloud

Altran and Ciena's Blue Planet have joined forces to reduce the friction for service providers that are deploying services across 5G, IoT and cloud.

O2 UK gets £10 million wrist slap for overcharging

UK MNO O2 spent almost a decade overcharging customers when they switched, for which Ofcom has belatedly given it a token punishment.

Why AI-based closed-loop automation is key for service providers

The road to autonomous networks is chock full of AI, ML and closed-loop automation for service providers.

Swantee ditches Telia for Vodafone

Olaf Swantee will join Vodafone as a non-executive director this summer, provided his nomination gets the go-ahead from shareholders at the telco’s July AGM.

News bites: Coherent's third suitor ups the ante

Also included in our late afternoon summary of news and comment: stats from the Super Bowl of Wi-Fi and Dell'Oro projects growth for the CBRS RAN market.

ATSC 3.0 shows potential for car connectivity

Sony-led trials indicate the next-gen broadcast signaling standard can support multiple automotive applications, and be particularly useful in canyons and mountainous areas prone to bad reception.

Unleash experience-first networking with Juniper Paragon Automation

Juniper Paragon Automation is a modular portfolio of cloud-native software applications that deliver closed-loop automation in 5G and multi-cloud environments.

CableLabs CMO sets her exit

CableLabs, which recently merged with SCTE and is inching toward its '4Front' event in June, said it has begun a search for a new chief marketing officer amid the departure of Rachel Beisel.

Intel, AMD, Qualcomm, Micron Call for Chip Subsidies

Several U.S. chipmakers are calling on the Biden administration to provide subsidies and tax incentives to support domestic semiconductor manufacturing, according to a recent Reuters report.

Daily Roundup: Rakuten Wins 5G Deal

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 newsletters to get these stories in your inbox.

5G in the US will get a lot clearer by March 31 – here's why

According to some analysts, the FCC should announce the results of the C-band auction for 5G spectrum by Friday, February 26. If that's the case, the US market for 5G ought to soon gain more clarity.

SingTel CEO puts positive spin on tough Q3

Resilience shown at the Group's enterprise segment was one of the few bright spots.

Ligado to use Rakuten's platform for private 5G

Ligado Networks inked a memorandum of understanding to use the Rakuten Communications Platform, but Rakuten officials wouldn't describe Ligado as an RCP customer.

2G or not 2G: Brazil's TIM starts switching 2G off

TIM Brasil starts powering down its 2G network, as its ultra broadband revenue, using equipment from China's ZTE, soars 25% in the last quarter.

Millicom preaches caution after a tough 2020

The operator managed to maintain a steady course despite the pandemic, but says it is not out of the woods yet.

Dell Lofts Private Cloud Into On-Prem Subscription Service

Dell Technologies added a private cloud option for customers via its Cloud Console web interface to make it easier to buy the right-sized infrastructure for on-premises clouds.

Rakuten Strikes 5G Platform Deal With Ligado Networks

Rakuten Mobile signed a deal to help U.S.-based Ligado Networks design a private 5G network that uses the Japanese operator’s customizable platform.

Vecima sees DAA sales perk up

A sizable chunk of the Vecima's Entra-brand distributed access architecture products came way of the company's recent acquisition of Nokia's cable access business.

Eurobites: O2 fined £10.5M for shocking final bills

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Brits turn to mobile data to survive lockdown logjam; Ericsson deploys private network with Cosmote; Proximus signs up One Bill Global as MVNO.

WiCipedia: The new '5 to 9' work hustle

This week in our WiC roundup: Dolly Parton is the new face of entrepreneurship; the struggle isn't over for Google's defamed AI researcher; diverse VC funds are the future of funding; and more.

Rakuten's sumo-sized mobile challenge just got $2B costlier

The Japanese e-commerce giant has just figured out it needs 16,603 more basestations than it had originally planned.

Juniper Debuts Paragon Automation Software Suite

Juniper Networks today revealed Paragon Automation, a new brand and suite of software developed for vendor-agnostic monitoring of network services, automation, and resiliency testing.

Pivotal raises $50M in C round

Pivotal Commware, the millimeter-wave (mmWave) focused startup backed by Bill Gates, closed a $50 million C round led by an affiliate of Tracker Capital Management.

Do something useful with spectrum auction proceeds - Lowenstein

The good news: the recently completed C-band auction was a tremendous success, raising some $80 billion -- significantly above consensus estimates. The bad news: we’ll never really know what happens to that $80 billion, which is a particular shame during this pandemic era when broadband availability and affordability have become front-burner issues. The industry and regulators need to take a serious look at this.

Ericsson, Open RAN coalition weigh in on NTIA 5G Challenge

Ericsson and the Open RAN Policy Coalition have each responded to NTIA’s 5G "open stack" challenge proposal, with ideas about how the agency should go about the initiative.

The biggest RDOF winner LTD Broadband responds to naysayers

LTD Broadband is a company that most people have never heard of. But it garnered the largest award of any company in the FCC’s recent Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) reverse auction. 

Verizon's retail strategy touches some nerves

If you’ve recently visited a corporate Verizon store, you may have noticed signage telling customers to wait outside. It’s part of a 1:1 ratio of customer-to-rep that the company started last year when the pandemic set in.   It’s been going on for months, and Wave7 Research likens it to a 1-on-1 basketball game. When analysts visit a store as part of their routine checks, they’ve found that more often than not, a store rep is at their side. “It’s almost like you’re in a basketball game and it’s a one-on-one defense format,” said Jeff Moore, principal of Wave7.

Openreach connects first fiber customer using Adtran's GPON gear

Openreach has turned up its first live subscriber using GPON gear and software from Adtran. Openreach, which is a division of BT Group, had previously provisioned its FTTP deployments by using Nokia and Huawei gear, but last year it named Adtran as a third option.

Kerravala: SD-WAN provider Masergy launches UCaaS offering

On Thursday, Masergy, a provider of SD-WAN and SASE products announced, it has enhanced its current Unified Communications-as-a-Service (UCaaS) solution by adding Cisco Webex. The partnership will allow the service provider to consolidate calling, Webex meetings and video into a single application experience.

Lumen focuses on fiber build outs over RDOF deployments

While Lumen reaped the financial rewards from the FCC's Connect America Fund (CAF) II, the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) is taking a back seat to Lumen's fiber builds.

Lessons from spectrum auctions: Entner

The bidding for licenses in the C-Band auction has ended with bids of $81 billion for 280 MHz, surprising most observers. The C-Band auction exceeded the previous record holder, the 2015 AWS-3 auction, which yielded $44.9 billion.

Telstra hits the high street

Telstra is taking back control of its network of retail outlets, many of which are currently operated under licence by third parties.

UK government determined not to let a good digital identity crisis go to waste

There is apparently a trust problem around digital identities and no wonder, with talk of vaccine passports being required for previously unrestricted activities.

India poised for FTTx growth and the arrival of 5G says Nokia

India is up there with other major global markets when it comes to mobile data growth, according to the latest mobile broadband report from Nokia.

News bites: The Coherent courting continues

Also included in our late afternoon summary of news and comment: An update on the men caught up in Huawei's crossfire, Sling TV adds a new TV bundle and Comcast launches vaccine info resources.

Pandemic pushes enterprises to hybrid cloud adoption

Nearly 61% of organizations are currently using or piloting hybrid clouds, according to a new report by NTT.

Disney+ nears 100M subs worldwide as ARPU dips

Meanwhile, Hulu's live TV service lost some ground, leveling out at 4 million subs, while ESPN+ grew to 12.1 million.

Biden planning order to increase US chip production

President Biden is planning to pen an executive order designed in part to improve the physical production of chipsets in the US. That may come as welcome news to 5G providers.

VMware VP Says Complexity Shaped SD-WAN, SASE

The problems SD-WAN originally set out to solve are completely different from the problems SD-WAN is solving today, VMware’s Craig Connors said.

Amid 5G kerfuffle, China still has a tight grip on broadband

Huawei and ZTE control most of the global market for broadband access equipment and the only 'scale' alternative is Nokia.

Equinix full-year financials buoyed by new services

Q4 not bad either with channel bookings accounting for more than 35% of the full-year total.

Private equity firm bids for Synacor

Deal, which values Synacor at $92 million, comes roughly eight months after Synacor and Qumu called off their proposed merger.

Daily Roundup: Zscaler, HPE, Cisco Top SASE Market

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Biden may retire Trump's 'Clean Networks' campaign against Huawei

Telefonica, Orange, Telus, SK Telecom, Rakuten, Taiwan Mobile, SoftBank and Optus were among the network operators that signed on to Trump's 'Clean Networks' program. Its fate is now unclear.

Biden presses pause on TikTok ban

ByteDance's sale of US TikTok to Oracle and Walmart appears to be shelved following a rethink of US policy.

What's ahead in optical?

Heavy Reading's Sterling Perrin gives a quick rundown of what's coming up in the optical networking space for 2021 as he previews Light Reading's Optical Networking Symposium on February 16 and 18.

AT&T Relinquishes ‘Trailblazer’ Status on Network Virtualization

AT&T made a lot of hay out of its six-year push to virtualize 75% of its network functions, a goal it claims it reached in September 2020. The operator earned a lot of praise for being so outspoken about the effort earlier than its competitors, but something changed in the last few months, and signs suggest AT&T has relinquished its leadership role, according to LightCounting.

Palo Alto Networks Joins Flexible Firewall Party. Will Cisco Follow Suit?

Palo Alto Networks will soon change its licensing for all of its software firewalls and security services to a more consumption-based approach.

Telstra stock rides higher despite lower earnings

The Australian operator kept investors happy with its turnaround story and plans for a towers sale.

VMware Jumps On Accenture’s ‘Cloud First’ Push

VMware joined Accenture’s “cloud first” push with a new business group designed to boost the seemingly endless focus on helping enterprises accelerate their cloud migration strategies. The venture will pile onto Accenture’s recent multi-billion-dollar cloud investment pledge.

Podcast – The Divide: Dr. Nicol Turner Lee on the 'digitally invisible'

This week: Brookings Senior Fellow Dr. Nicol Turner Lee on what she learned on her ten-city tour investigating the digital divide in the US.

Nokia flags Brazilian tie-up on 5G open RAN

Finnish vendor to collaborate with research body CPQD on development of services based on the O-RAN RIC.

Eurobites: EU gets moving on data privacy

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Olaf Swantee turns up at Vodafone; Volkswagen strikes cloud deal with Microsoft; Orange turns Prpl.

New Relic Explorer Gives Full-Stack Developers a Bird's-Eye View

New Relic gave its application performance monitoring (APM) platform a fresh coat of paint with the launch of its Explorer dashboard.

Carriers all exceed 1 Gbps 5G at Super Bowl LV

Ahead of last weekend’s Super Bowl LV, the three major U.S. carriers all touted network enhancements in and around Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida.

Telia reckons it’s changing the IoT game

Swedish operator group Telia has made its big IoT move in the form of a bundle of technologies designed to take the hassle out of global implementation.

Private wireless: Ericsson and Nokia plot different paths

Private wireless networks are emerging as a major focus for Europe's two biggest telco equipment vendors. Nokia and Ericsson are both charging hard into the private wireless space, but with slightly different approaches. 

Verizon, Deloitte pursue 5G MEC for retail

Verizon Business and the professional services company Deloitte unveiled a 5G and mobile edge computing (MEC) platform for retail. 

OpenVault: Covid drives 51% spike in broadband traffic in 2020

OpenVault has stuck a fork in the increased broadband usage last year due to the pandemic with its latest report. The OpenVault Broadband Insights (OVBI) report found that Covid-19 drove a 51% increase in broadband traffic last year due in large part to remote learning and remote work.

Samsung VP: Wi-Fi 6E an ‘entirely new canvas’

When Samsung introduced its latest flagship Galaxy smartphones last month, the S21 Ultra was the first to include support for Wi-Fi 6E – enabling users to tap new unlicensed spectrum unleashed in places including South Korea and the U.S.

Ekinops gives 5G business connectivity tests a trial run

While 5G consumer deployments continue to sprout up around the globe, the business use cases are still a work in progress.

Cisco CEO: Work-from-home a struggle mentally for people

The shine on working-from-home has worn off for most people, according to Cisco CEO and President Chuck Robbins.

Wi-Fi advances mean more choices for enterprise

As interest in private cellular networks for enterprise marches forward the case is sometimes made for better reliability and security than Wi-Fi can afford.

America Movil spins off towers, but likely to keep control

America Movil has become the latest big-name telco to announce a plan to spin off towers with a view to maximising the value of those passive infrastructure assets.

Ericsson teams up with T-Systems to flog campus network solutions

Swedish kit vendor Ericsson is partnering with the IT services arm of Deutsche Telekom to offer bespoke B2B connectivity services worldwide.

New iPhone boosting Huawei’s reputation in Europe – Ren Zhengfei

Huawei is benefiting from the popularity of the latest iPhone model, whose success demonstrates the strength of the Chinese vendor’s 5G networks in Europe, insists the Huawei founder.

1-Gig sell-in at Altice USA rises to 41%

Operator seeing 25% gross broadband adds come from Fios zones as company sees an 'absolute explosion' of broadband subscriber activity in its more rural – and underpenetrated – Suddenlink footprint.

News bites: Unicorns are everywhere

Also included in our late afternoon summary of news and comment: Calix improves its cloud, Oracle recharges charging, Viasat offers in-flight Wi-Fi over Russia and Charter uses apps to make entertainment more accessible.

Industry debates 'the art of the possible' in 5G spectrum sharing

Responses to a Department of Defense request for information on 5G spectrum sharing raise questions about network slicing, spectrum auctions and the future of valuable midband spectrum.

Zscaler, HPE, Cisco Top SASE Market 650 Group Finds

Zscaler, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), Cisco, Fortinet, and Versa topped the leaderboard of secure access service edge (SASE) vendors in a report from 650 Group published today.

Daily Roundup: Cisco Security Soars, Infrastructure Slips

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India still not ready to launch 5G

A report from India's parliament blames regulatory authorities for the country's tardy rollout of 5G.

Security Unicorn Snyk Plans DevSecOps Domination

While most of us only reluctantly look back on last year, 2020 was banner year for cloud security startup Snyk.

GCP Narrowly Edges Past AWS, Azure in Cockroach Labs 2021 Report

Cockroach Labs’ 2021 cloud report found that competition between cloud computing’s three industry heavyweights  — Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP) — is no longer an equal playing field.

Twitter inks revenue record, but frets about iOS 14

Twitter sees user growth slow, but the big question is how iOS 14 will affect record-high revenue.

5G phones take off in China

And China's own handset brands are slugging it out to replace Huawei.

Open RAN Sprouts (Yet) Another Community

The number of communities pushing open radio access network (RAN) technology is growing at a faster rate than large-scale deployments. NTT DoCoMo earlier this month became the latest to form a new group tasked with fostering the development of open RAN.

América Móvil sees postpaid subs surge, joins tower spinout crowd

Favorable Mexican peso exchange rates with the US dollar and euro helped boost net profits by 80%.

Fixing the Automotive Chip Shortage Could Hurt US Chipmakers

The automotive industry has been crippled by, of all things, a chip shortage. But efforts to remedy the situation, including a push for the Biden administration to enact the National Defense Authorization Act, could have unintended consequences for American chipmakers.

Starlink opens up $99 pre-orders for satellite broadband service

Move signals that Starlink is ready to broaden access to a more limited beta offering that launched last fall.

'Power users' consuming 1 TB+ per month have almost doubled – OpenVault

More than 14% of broadband customers consumed more than 1 terabyte per month in Q4 2020, while 2.2% chewed up at least 2 TB per month, study finds.

Adtran prepares to gobble 'big chunk' of BT broadband pie

Making its commercial debut in the Openreach network, the US broadband vendor has emerged as a big beneficiary of the UK's Huawei clampdown.

Eurobites: Telia goes 'beyond roaming' with global IoT offer

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Ericsson, T-Systems take private-network collaboration worldwide; Swisscom buys Webtiser for SAP boost; A1 Austria holds it together in Q4.

Sigfox brings in Google Cloud for next stage of IoT journey

IoT specialist was seeking a 'scalable, long-term solution' to process 'billions of messages each month.'

Telecom Infra Project starts charging for membership

The Telecom Infra Project (TIP) has begun charging many of its members for participation. TIP’s Executive Director Attilio Zani said the organization has supported itself, up to now, through grants, contributions and its events. But this week it instituted a three-tier structure for its members.

Qualcomm unveils latest 5G chipset, boasting 10 Gbps

Qualcomm unveiled its latest 5G modem-RF system, the Snapdragon X65, which among other features boasts aggregation across spectrum bands and faster data rates.

Verizon’s Visible adds 5G, eSIM support

Visible, the all-digital prepaid brand owned by Verizon, today announced the launch of several new features, including 5G and eSIM support.

Qualcomm’s latest 5G modem goes up to 10

US mobile chip giant Qualcomm has unveiled its latest 5G modem – the X65 – which claims to be the world’s first to manage 10 Gigabits per second.

IBM hooks up with FogHorn to grow AI-based edge solutions

After working together for several years, FogHorn has joined the IBM Edge Ecosystem to offer joint customers AI-based solutions at the edge.

Nokia’s head of U.S. sales worries about C-band costs

Ed Cholerton, who has taken over as head of sales for Nokia in North America, indicated that he is looking forward to seeing the results of the recent C-band auction. But the amount that U.S. operators bid for C-band spectrum will dictate to a certain extent how much capital they will be able to spend in 2021 on actual 5G deployments.

Google Cloud notches another telco win with Canada's Telus

Google Cloud has added another telco to its customer roster with the addition of Canadian service provider Telus. Google Cloud announced on Tuesday that it has signed a 10-year collaboration deal to help fuel Telus' internal digital transformation while also jointly developing new products and services.

Europe reportedly considering making internet giants pay for news

The precedent set by Australia in forcing the likes of Facebook and Google to pay the publishers of news that appears on their sites could be copied by the EU.

PacketFabric's NaaS hitches a ride on Colt's On Demand platform

PacketFabric has extended the reach of its network-as-a-service (NaaS) offering by teaming up with Colt Technology Services' On Demand platform.

Proximus buys all of BICS, consolidation on the cards

Proximus is taking sole control of international carrier business BICS, 15 years after it created the company via a merger with Swisscom.

Hoarding and economic recovery contribute to global chip shortage

Qualcomm recently conceded a general shortage of supply across the entire semiconductor industry as a V-shaped recovery and possible hoarding by Huawei increased demand.

Masmovil puts its energy into electricity

Masmovil has taken things to the next level with the acquisition of an electricity and gas provider that significantly increases its presence in the energy space.

Verizon Business Pushes 5G MEC to Retailers With Deloitte

Verizon Business today took another step on the long and winding road to discover use cases that it hopes will unlock new revenue streams from 5G. The network operator expanded its fresh partnership with Deloitte to make a new platform available to retailers that rides on 5G and mobile edge computing.

Cisco reports software, security sizzle as Q2 revenues remain flat

In a mixed quarter, Cisco reported flat revenues, but it beat earnings estimates and had a bright spot in software and security sales.

News bites: II-VI sees quick gains from Finisar buy

Also included in our late afternoon summary of news and comment, Coherent is choosing between multi-billion dollar suitors, an Alaskan region gets some fiber-based broadband and Sling has a V-Day deal.

Huawei looks for openings in Biden's defense

On Monday, Huawei filed a lawsuit to reverse the FCC's designation of the company as a national threat. On Tuesday, Huawei's founder mused about a reset to US-China relations.

Cisco Infrastructure Revenue Slips, Security Soars

In a sign of the times, Cisco’s Infrastructure Platforms business revenue — this is Cisco’s biggest product segment and includes its data center switches and routers — declined 3% year over year to $6.39 billion during the second quarter of fiscal year 2021. As company executives quickly pointed out: infrastructure has been the hardest hit by COVID-19.

Gauging the Impact of Qualcomm’s New 5G Chips for Industrial IoT

Qualcomm today introduced a pair of new 5G chips for devices that claim to deliver speeds up to 10 Gb/s. The company is targeting a broad swath of applications with its fourth-generation 5G modems, including new services and capabilities for industrial IoT.

Verizon won't catch T-Mobile with C-band – analysts

When the dust settles around the C-band auction, the analysts at Evercore expect T-Mobile to still command twice as much valuable midband spectrum as Verizon.

Vidgo finds its footing in crowded streaming TV market

Vidgo, a virtual MVPD focused on the prepaid model, has seen a growth spurt following a recent investment and the elimination of free trials, CEO Shane Cannon says.

Ciena loves the optics as Huawei grows 'less relevant'

The optical equipment maker is hoping to capitalize on the unpopularity of Huawei and the struggles of Nokia this year.

Electronic Arts buys Glu as gaming consolidates

Coming amid a wave of gaming industry consolidation, this will be one of the costliest video game acquisitions in history.

India's government threatens Twitter

The social media firm faces a possible ban in India after failing to shut down accounts at the request of authorities.

Daily Roundup: Google Wins Telus 10-Year Deal

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Super Bowl LV hits streaming record as total TV viewership falls

CBS Sports says the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' blowout victory over the Kansas City Chiefs drew an average minute audience of 5.7 million across streaming platforms.

Podcast: Omdia's optimistic forecast for private LTE and 5G networks

Omdia's Pablo Tomasi joins the podcast to share his market forecasts for private LTE and 5G networks.

Former Google chief warns 'massive sums' paid for C-Band will stall 5G

Eric Schmidt thinks Auction 107 was a digital setback that America and its allies can ill-afford.

KT taps growth from emerging AI, B2B services

The South Korean operator posted a drop in revenues after the pandemic hit equipment sales, but there was progress in new business areas.

Half of enterprises plan to boost SD-WAN and MPLS usage in 2021 – survey

Over 60% of enterprises aim to increase or significantly increase their SD-WAN usage this year, and 59% plan to increase MPLS usage in 2021, Avant study finds.

Eurobites: How BT helps prop up the UK economy

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: opportunity NOCs for Elisa; Orange's cloud to power Egypt's new smart city; Vodafone chooses Digitalk platform for MVNO growth.

IBM Flash Storage Family Gains Faster, Agile Editions

IBM’s latest flash storage array systems are all about refreshing the entry space to help make enterprise-class storage accessible to businesses of all sizes and needs The entry-level storage family now features IBM FlashSystem 5015 and 5035, which have been refreshed from their predecessors 5010 and 5030 respectively, and the new wholly new designed 5200.

Oracle Hybrid Cloud Roves Out to the Edge

Oracle launched a new edge infrastructure product that extends its hybrid cloud reach out to more diverse locations and joins a similar push made by its larger hyperscale rivals.

Proximus mops up rest of BICS

Belgian operator to take full control of the mobile-roaming middleman as well as its TeleSign unit.

Trend Micro XDR Adds Deeper Risk Visibility With Vision One

Trend Micro extended its extended detection and response (XDR) technology today with a new platform, Vision One, that adds new risk visibility and third-party integrations to Trend Micro’s XDR.

Telus Inks 10-Year Google Cloud Deal

Telus today announced a 10-year agreement with Google Cloud that exemplifies the importance of the cloud in 5G services for enterprises and its internal operations.

Pandemic, new tech drive need for Wi-Fi management in the home

The pandemic prompted a lot of folks to add more connected devices to their homes, but with all these devices, who do they turn to when problems arise?

NTCA, Fiber Broadband Association diss Starlink's RDOF prospects

Add the Fiber Broadband Association and NTCA to the list of entities that don't think Starlink will be able to live up to its RDOF awards to deploy broadband in unserved rural areas across the U.S.

Telefónica teams with Mavenir, AWS on IoT service

Telefónica is working with Mavenir and Amazon Web Services (AWS) on a pre-commercial managed IoT connectivity service that the operator expects to offer using Mavenir’s packet core solution and AWS’s cloud infrastructure.

Dish names Aviat for 5G microwave transport

Dish Network plans to leverage microwave transport for midhaul and backhaul in its 5G network, using Aviat Networks as one of its key suppliers.

5 predictions for private networks in 2021: Putcha

In 2021, there is a growing chorus of industry voices drawing attention to private networks. This year will see private LTE deployments, a liberal sprinkling of 5G proof of concepts (PoCs) and new ecosystem deals

Raynovich: Opportunity strikes for SPs' SD-WAN managed services

For decades, we have heard debates about whether major service providers could become trapped in the "dumb pipe" model for being commodity-based providers of voice and data services. With legacy cash cows such as International toll services (remember that?) and Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) drying up, the urgency to come up with new value-added services is accelerating—especially in the enterprise market.

Rollable, foldable smartphones alone won’t sell consumers on 5G

Google’s Android operating system and Apple’s iPhone and its iOS operating system played a key role in the rise of the 4G era. The creation of the Android and iOS ecosystems dramatically altered how consumers interacted with their devices and brought to life numerous applications not imagined possible before. In fact, the smartphone revolution of the 4G era is widely credited with the explosion of the “Gig” economy.”  The “Gig” economy made it feasible for consumers to download an app and order a ride, a meal, or even a handyman with just a couple of keystrokes.

IBM and Palantir join forces on 'low-code' AI data processing

IBM and Palantir have teamed up on a new enterprise offering designed to simplify how businesses build and deploy AI-based applications.

Buyout offer for Aussie fibre provider Vocus beats previous bids

Vocus has confirmed that it has received another takeover offer, its fifth in less than four years, and its value has apparently increased in that time.

Nokia scores an optical win with Deutsche Telekom

Following on the heels of a rocky 2020, which included a new CEO, Nokia has landed an optical deal with Deutsche Telekom.

Connected car consolidation as Renesas acquires Dialog for €4.9 billion

Japanese automotive electronics giant Renesas is spending big on UK-based Dialog Semiconductor, which specialises in low power embedded chips.

Nokia gets some welcome Deutsche Telekom optical work

Finnish kit vendor Nokia will be pleased to have received some friendly vibes from German operator DT in the form an optical transport network modernization gig.

Verizon Tracfone deal could cut consumers’ Lifeline, US states warn

A group of US states has warned that Verizon’s proposed acquisition of Tracfone could affect the ability of American consumers to access low-cost mobile phone services.

Fortinet Firewall, Web Apps Hit by Security Flaw

Threat researchers at Positive Technologies have discovered four security vulnerabilities affecting Fortinet‘s FortiWeb firewalls and web applications and is advising customers to update their deployments as soon as possible.

News bites: Another UK chipmaker gets a multi-billion dollar buyout offer

Also included in our late afternoon summary of news and comment: Dish picks Aviat for backhaul, DZS closes its Optelian acquisition and Verizon takes on gamer complainers.

What I learned watching John Legere's Instagram call-in show

As CEO of T-Mobile, John Legere turned the company around and positioned it to directly challenge the market's leaders. Now, in his self-imposed retirement, he's hosting shows on Instagram.

Fiber, telco pressure groups say Starlink faces capacity shortfall

Study commissioned by the FBA and the NTCA estimate that, by 2028, 56% of Starlink's RDOF locations will experience service degradation during peak times and fail to meet RDOF requirements.

FAST Studios banks on the rise of free streaming

Startup will invest in new and existing free, ad-supported streaming channels as market continues to pick up steam thanks to the likes of Pluto TV, Tubi and Comcast-owned Xumo.

Deutsche Telecom Greenlights Nokia for Optical Upgrade

Nokia’s optical portfolio got a boost from Deutsche Telecom today. The German network operator plans to deploy the vendor’s optical transport portfolio as part of an ongoing network modernization effort.

Daily Roundup: Rakuten Blames Spectrum for O-RAN Shortfall

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 newsletters to get these stories in your inbox.

Amazon targets 'America's heartland' with pitch for Project Kuiper

Amazon's Project Kuiper is pledging to deliver 'fiber-like' broadband services to remote corners of America. But the company is also eyeing partnerships with 5G operators.

Rakuten Mobile Tech Leader’s Open RAN Wish List

Tareq Amin is bold in both his vision for the future of mobile networking and the claims he makes about Rakuten Mobile’s ability to flip the industry upside down. 

Apple talks with Hyundai and Kia break down

Talks on the Apple Car appear to have stalled, although they may only have been parked for now.

5G fuels Docomo/Sony far-flung test drive

Testing remote driving by 5G, Docomo Pacific piloted a Sony testbed car from 1,500 miles away in Japan, as cars, telcos and tech companies grow ever closer.

Nokia bags optical network deal with Telekom Deutschland

German incumbent's push on network core automation is welcome news for the Finnish vendor, bruised by recent declines at its mobile access unit.

CloudSphere’s New CEO Puts VMware, Rapid7 on Notice

When CloudSphere’s new CEO Jane Gilson takes the reins of the multi-cloud management startup, she’ll join the exclusive club of female tech CEOs and become the company’s first female chief executive.

Say hello to the open RAN 'ecosystem,' or vendor lock-in 2.0

As ecosystems and vendor partnerships become more popular, there is a growing risk that open RAN merely replaces one form of dependence with another.

Huawei defies US sanctions with higher sales, profit – report

Huawei increased profit 10% in 2020, achieving another set of strong financial numbers in the teeth of US sanctions, Chinese media have reported.

5G overshadows wireless operators' IoT businesses

From connected cars to fleet management, US operators have built IoT arsenals to address a variety of vertical markets. But today they aren't making much noise about their progress.

Minim adds data usage tracker to device management app

Minim, a maker of DOCSIS gateways and other CPE, has launched a data usage tool for ISPs and for its retail products to help educate consumers about their usage patterns and to 'demystify' data caps.

Eurobites: Telefónica corrals Mavenir, AWS for managed IoT

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Orange lands transatlantic cable near Bordeaux; Cambridge Wireless and Huawei launch 5G testbed; CityFibre, Virtual1 team up for business fiber services.