Headcount: Firings, Hirings, and Retirings — March 2021

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

Cisco, Intel, VMware Execs Decipher vRAN vs. Open RAN

Virtualized radio access networks (vRAN) and open RAN are oftentimes used interchangeably, but there are important, technical differences between the two RAN frameworks. 

Will private wireless kill network slicing?

The telecom industry has been trumpeting 5G network slicing for a couple of years now, saying carriers will be able to make money by selling “slices” of their networks to different enterprises for their exclusive use.

Verizon gets OK for more C-band tests

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recently granted Verizon approval to conduct more C-band tests in multiple markets across the U.S.

What’s next after mmWave networks?

Mobile traffic demand continues to grow at 50% every year. Where will this ride end?  

ZEDEDA chases edge gains after $12.5M cash infusion

Edge orchestration company ZEDEDA outlined plans to use $12.5 million in fresh funding to fuel an ambitious expansion plan, targeting gains in the far reaches of the network, which one of its executives claimed others can’t adequately serve.

Verizon to pair 5G, immersive VR with Dreamscape

Verizon is looking to create new education and training applications that utilize 5G and mobile edge compute for immersive virtual reality (VR) experiences in a partnership with Dreamscape.

Operators line up for FCC broadband subsidy program

More than 300 fixed and mobile internet providers were approved to participate in the U.S. Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Emergency Broadband Benefit (EBB) program, marking a key step forward as the agency works to distribute billions in government subsidies to low-income consumers.

SD-WAN gains traction with world's largest companies

SD-WAN is steadily replacing MPLS, and IT managers are no longer looking at it primarily as a way to cut costs - now it's about boosting capacity, access and performance. These are the findings of TeleGeography's latest WAN Manager Survey, which collected responses from IT managers at 125 large companies during 2020.  

Daily Roundup: Megaport Edge NaaS’d, Tied to Cisco SD-WAN

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.

Arm's Armv9 Architecture Puts Security, AI First

The next generation of Arm processors will deliver greater performance, enhanced security, and integrated artificial intelligence (AI) accelerators thanks to an all new microarchitecture, announced earlier this week.

Nokia’s Triple-Threat Gambit for Enterprise

Nokia’s gambit for enterprise revolves around a three-tier strategy including a modernization of physical network infrastructure, a broadened and more reliable connectivity layer, and industrial automation software.

The nature of upstream network usage has likely changed forever, OpenVault says

Upstream traffic surged 63% in 2020 during a pandemic-marked year that forced people to work and study from home and altered the period of the day that saw peak network usage.

Dish grumbles to FCC about T-Mobile's CMDA shutdown plan

Dish claims it's 'simply not possible' to accelerate the migration of Boost Mobile subs in time for the January 2022 3G CDMA shutdown. T-Mobile counters that its plan fits inside the parameters of its deal with Dish.

AT&T SD-WAN is homeward bound with new Cisco service

The service provider is launching the new teleworker SD-WAN service to address a growing hybrid workforce that is accessing business applications both on-premises and in the home.

VMware Taps Knative for Tanzu Kubernetes Abstraction

VMware is infusing the Knative Project into its rapidly expanding Tanzu platform to provide a serverless experience for the creation of applications. The move expands VMware’s serverless ambitions and shines a positive light on the Kubernetes-focused abstraction layer.

Heavy Reading's Gabriel Brown: Exploring the world of open RAN

Heavy Reading analyst Gabriel Brown offers up a preview of the upcoming two-day Open RAN World Digital Conference.

Megaport Ties NaaS Platform Into Cisco SD-WAN

Megaport this week released its Megaport Virtual Edge (MVE) network-as-a-service (NaaS) offering alongside tighter integrations with Cisco’s SD-WAN.

Synthesis Cloud plots plan for national broadcast Internet network

Startup plans to pair the new ATSC 3.0 signaling standard with spectrum from hundreds of low-power TV station partners to underpin a national IP multicast network and edge caching system.

Ericsson's Texas see-saw patent massacre

KPN sues Ericsson for patent-infringement in a district court in Texas, only weeks after the Swedish supplier did the same to Samsung.

Dish says T-Mobile isn’t being very ‘un-carrier’

If there ever were a “honeymoon,” it’s definitely over between Dish Network and T-Mobile. A year ago, they were practically best buds as Dish served an important role in T-Mobile getting the regulatory OK to merge with Sprint. But today, Dish is accusing the “un-carrier” of some very “carrier-like” behavior, and the relationship is soured, to say the least.

Contact centers prepare for hybrid WFH — Greenblatt, Millar

Prior to the pandemic, 88% of telecommunications companies surveyed by J.D. Power allowed, or enabled, only 25% of their agents to operate in work-from-home (WFH) environments. But by July of 2020, 78% of telecommunications companies were at 100% work-from-home.

Verizon snags private 5G network deal with U.K. port operator

Verizon has scored its first European customer for private 5G wireless after introducing an international platform with Nokia last October. The carrier landed a contract with Associated British Ports (ABP) to equip the U.K. Port of Southampton with a private 5G network.

AT&T starts offering 5G+ to first responders via FirstNet

First responders using the FirstNet network, which is provided by AT&T, will get access to AT&T’s 5G millimeter wave (mmWave) network starting this month.

GSMA holds firm over MWC 2021 despite further cancellations

This year’s Mobile World Congress suffered a further blow with the news that Google, the owner of Android, would not be physically participating this year.

Pandemic drove upstream broadband traffic boom: OpenVault

Upstream broadband traffic increased 63% – from 19 GB to 31 GB – between December 2019 and December 2020, as the Covid-19 pandemic impacted remote working, overall business-hours consumption and other areas, according to a report from OpenVault, a provider of cloud-based software-as-a-service solutions.

T-Mobile’s Ulf Ewaldsson says ‘time has come’ for fixed wireless

The panelists on a FierceWireless session at this week's CCA Mobile Show were pretty stoked about the opportunities for fixed wireless access (FWA) to disrupt the home broadband market.

Samsung to double midband 5G radio bandwidth to 400 MHz

Samsung plans to deliver its next generation of 5G mid-band radios early next year that support double the amount of bandwidth of its current radio gear.

IBM, Red Hat team with Celonis on digital transformation

IBM and Red Hat partnered with data process mining firm Celonis to integrate the Celonis Execution Management System into IBM’s consulting and business process solutions with the aim of easing and accelerating digital transformation projects.

Deutsche Telekom picks up the pace on climate targets

Deutsche Telekom (DT) ramped its climate action plan, pulling target completion dates for the reduction of emissions forward by as much as 10 years.

LG reportedly set to exit smartphones

Korean tech giant LG has been struggling in the smartphone game for years and now seems likely to finally call it a day.

AT&T, Cisco enhance SD-WAN support for remote workers

AT&T announced that its SD-WAN portfolio now includes Cisco Systems’ Teleworker solution, which extends corporate SD-WAN tools and security to companies’ remote workers. AT&T and Cisco also said the carrier’s SD-WAN service now meets the security requirements of the Federal Information Security Modernization Act (FISMA), while giving public sector users more control over their usage policies.

MessageBird adds two new brands to its stable

Up-and-coming cloud messaging platform company MessageBird has announced the acquisitions of two companies that will boost its portfolio of customer engagement services.

TSMC pledges $100 billion investment as chip wars intensify

Taiwanese chip manufacturer TSMC reckons semiconductor demand is only going to increase in the coming year and it’s determined to meet it.

Bundled broadband service create stickiness in Ireland, but…

Consumers subscribing to a bundle of telecoms services are significantly less likely to churn than those with a standalone broadband service, according to a new study from Ireland’s Comreg,

Daily Roundup: VMware Wants to Be 'Central Nervous System' for 5G Operators

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TSMC Pledges $100B Foundry Boost

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) pledged $100 billion over the next three years to expand its semiconductor fabrication capacity, according to a recent Bloomberg report.

VMware Wants to Be 'Central Nervous System' for 5G Operators

VMware is positioning itself to be the “central nervous system” for 5G network operators with a multi-cloud platform that continues to evolve, according to Lakshmi Mandyam, VMware’s VP of telco and edge cloud product management.

Podcast: The Divide – Fiber Broadband Association's Gary Bolton on the 'good news, good news' for fiber

This week, Gary Bolton, CEO, Fiber Broadband Association, joins the show to discuss why the US needs to put fiber first, why satellite broadband could be a 'disaster' for communities and more.

SDxCentral’s Top 10 Articles — March 2021

Check out our top 10 articles for March 2021 covering the SDxCentral universe of SDN, NFV, and related topics. Rankings are based on unique visitors aggregated during the month.

Intel on the outside: Chips giant, Google and Microsoft are latest to quit MWC

US technology giants backs out citing safety concerns, and Google also confirms its withdrawal from this year's event.

AT&T Adds Cisco Teleworker Into Its SD-WAN Soup

AT&T Business added Cisco’s Teleworker option to its SD-WAN service that is targeted at making it easier for companies to set up remote workers and supports the Federal Information Security Modernization Act (FISMA) criteria for managing system security.

Eurobites: Verizon lands 5G private network gig in Southampton

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Swiss cheesemakers kick up a 6G stink; BT extends Enjoy partnership; Deutsche Telekom tweaks climate-change targets.

Are you going to MWC Barcelona?

The big cloud companies won't be at #MWC2021, but a cloud evangelist will. What about you? Take our survey and let us know.

Musk's SpaceX faces obstacles in India

Operators want authorities to block SpaceX's launch of commercial services during a testing phase, saying it has not obtained licenses.

China data revenue shrinks on discount 5G

In the first two months of 2021, combined sales of mobile and fixed-line data services contracted by 1.2%, official figures show.

Intel on the outside: Chips giant latest to quit MWC

Chips giant backs out citing safety concerns, and Google is also reported to have withdrawn from this year's event.

India may add more frequency bands for 5G auction

The Department of Telecommunications may add more bands to the planned auction, according to media reports, following telcos' demands for more 5G spectrum.

Xiaomi places $10B bet on 'smart' EVs

Chinese smartphone maker unveils ambitious plans for a 'Xiaomi electric vehicle.'

Why Deliveroo's flopped IPO didn't deliver

Even after coronavirus, Deliveroo's IPO flops, wiping £2 billion from a £7.6 billion opening market cap. How much will the indigestion affect tech IPOs?

FiberCop is go after KKR and Fastweb firm up stakes

Telecom Italia completes FiberCop agreements with two shareholders, but many obstacles remain on route to create the ultimate 'AccessCo.'

Indosat Ooredoo sells towers to Digital Colony for $750M

Indonesian operator of offload third and final tranche of towers to Digital Colony unit Edgepoint.

Ericsson opens lab to polish its cloud RAN credentials

Ericsson launches an open lab to work on virtualized 5G RAN, part of its campaign to head off virtualization and cloud RAN moves by Samsung and Nokia.

EE’s 700 MHz purchase could boost rural 5G – Tutela

U.K. regulators recently wrapped up the first portion of its March 5G spectrum auction, with BT’s EE coming away with the most low-band 700 MHz spectrum.

FCC mulls setting aside spectrum for space launches

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) eyed a move to allocate dedicated spectrum for space missions, aiming to cut red tape as the number of satellite launches continues to grow.

Biden targets $100B for universal broadband access in $2T plan

U.S. President Joe Biden outlined a plan to allocate $100 billion to fund broadband improvements with the goal of achieving 100% coverage by 2030, as part of a newly unveiled $2 trillion infrastructure package.

VMware, Oracle offer new options to ease cloud migrations

VMware and Oracle separately announced new offerings aimed at helping more customers migrate their applications to the cloud.

Ericsson launches new Open Lab for 5G vRAN

Ericsson has launched a new lab in Canada to interact and collaborate virtually with customers and other partners on 5G RAN technologies, with an initial focus on the Swedish vendor’s Cloud RAN portfolio.

‘Race to 5G’ alive and well for U.S., China

Open distributed interface management drives telco cloud — Doyle

Deployment of 5G is revealing new operational challenges for communication service provider (CSP) network operators. Especially challenging is the requirement to build and operate extremely high speed wireless networks with ultra-reliability and security.

Cisco unveils Routed Optical Networking solution

Cisco unveiled its Routed Optical Networking offering, leveraging optics from its Acacia acquisition and its Silicon One chip architecture, and announced a new broadband network gateway for wireline telcos at the Cisco Live! Event this week.

NSF, US Ignite award $2.7M for broadband boost

The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and the independent non-profit group US Ignite awarded $2.7 million in grants to boost internet connectivity in underserved communities, aiming to gather key data for future broadband deployments from seven unique projects.

Adtran unit targets 'ultra-low-density' broadband markets

Broadband equipment vendor Adtran today announced its 10G Total Access 5004 (TA5004) Micro-Cabinet, a compact, modular fiber access platform aimed squarely at the “ultra-low-density” deployment environments of rural markets, the company said.

Huawei grew in 2020 thanks to China but how long can that continue?

Chinese telecoms vendor Huawei has released its audited 2020 annual report, which reveals it managed to grow but leaned heavily on the Chinese market to do so.

Indosat Ooredoo does third and final towers deal

Indosat Ooredoo is raising money to fund network improvements in a way that has become very familiar to the telecoms space in recent years: it is selling off passive infrastructure.

JMA hires Ericsson North America CTO Joe Constantine

JMA Wireless has hired Joe Constantine as chief technology and strategy officer. He most recently was CTO, North America, for Ericsson.

Nokia tempts telcos to automate with promise of big financial reward

Nokia is really pushing telecoms operators to embrace automation, promising them huge financial rewards through cost-savings and the generation of additional revenues.

Ericsson tiptoes towards OpenRAN with new Open Lab

Swedish kit vendor Ericsson has unveiled an Open Lab, which is designed as a hub for collaboration on virtualized 5G RAN technologies.

Cisco Webex Updates Put People Over Productivity

Cisco is opening up the proverbial pandemic-induced Pandora’s box of productivity with enhancements to its Webex People Insights feature that will allow for the collection of insight targeted at employee well-being.

Daily Roundup: Cisco Is Not a Fan of Spectrum Auctions

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.

Cisco Live Champions Simpler, More Accessible Future

Cisco continued to push its message of a more inclusive future empowered by technology during the 2021 Cisco Live virtual conference this week. And, if Cisco has its way, it will be its equipment and services powering that future.

Cisco: Spectrum Auctions a Deterrent to 5G Deployments

You can definitely mark Cisco down as not being behind current government spectrum auction rules, which the vendor says is curtailing efforts by mobile telecom operators to bridge the digital divide.

Biden's big infrastructure plan targets broadband access, puts subsidy programs on notice

Piece of plan aimed to 'revitalize' US digital infrastructure also references the 1936 Rural Electrification Act, labeling broadband as 'the new electricity.'

HPE Eyes 150 New Ireland Jobs

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) is bolstering its presence in Ireland, announcing plans to hire 150 new people in the country over the next two years. Those new hires will also be part of the vendor’s move to boost its efforts on cybersecurity and software development on the Emerald Isle.

Huawei short on answers to chips crunch as growth stalls

The Chinese equipment behemoth still lacks a convincing solution to the problem of US trade sanctions, and sales are dropping outside China.

After Brazil’s about-face, Indonesia still hedges on Huawei

'We have to be smart in choosing,' says government minister.

Oracle Cloud Lift Kicks Migrations Into Overdrive

Oracle is ramping up its cloud push with a new migration service for its Oracle Cloud Infrastructure platform.

Ericsson Opens 5G Open RAN Lab

Ericsson opened a new collaboration lab targeted at advancing virtualized 5G radio access network (RAN) technologies beyond its own work in that space.

Eurobites: Telecom Italia foments industrial revolution

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Ooredoo sells towers in Indonesia; CityFibre wants clearer broadband labelling; Nokia helps make Nicosia smarter.

VMware Cloud Universal Boosts Flexible Consumption Push

VMware today delivered on its promise to offer more flexible pricing and consumption models with the release of VMware Cloud Universal, a new subscription-based service that aims to simplify and accelerate the purchase and consumption of VMware multi-cloud infrastructure management services. 

AT&T lights up 5G private wireless network for manufacturers

AT&T has developed a 5G private network at Chicago's MxD (Manufacturing x Digital), a public/private partnership launched in 2014 with funding from the Department of Defense and a host of private members. The network is designed to help companies learn how private 5G networks can improve their manufacturing operations. 

Kumu Networks to prototype 5G full duplex IAB for DoD

Kumu Networks secured a $5 million U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) award to prototype a 5G Full Duplex Integrated Access Backhaul (IAB) at scale and test it at the Hill Air Force Base in Utah.

Xiaomi does a foldy phone

The Mi Mix Fold claims to have the largest smartphone foldable display so far, as well as four speakers and a ‘liquid lens’.

Samsung provides 700 MHz gear for KDDI’s 5G

Samsung Electronics announced it has initiated KDDI’s commercial rollout of 700 MHz for 5G, providing enhanced indoor and outdoor mobile services and reliability.

AT&T enterprise exec updates on fixed wireless, private wireless

AT&T recently announced that it was offering 5G fixed wireless access (FWA) to business customers. But the carrier has been offering LTE FWA to business customers for almost two years.

Biggest city doesn’t always mean fastest speeds – RootMetrics

New rankings from RootMetrics show that of the top 125 U.S. markets (by population), two of the relatively smallest cities were among the speediest. Lansing, Michigan, and Fayetteville, North Carolina, landed in the top 10 with faster aggregate median downloads than major markets like Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas and more.

Verizon sets final deadline for 3G sunset

Verizon finalized plans to shut down its 3G CDMA network after multiple delays, stating it will officially pull the plug on December 31, 2022.

Cisco expands SASE to make it easier to connect users to apps

Cisco is trying to simplify the complex by expanding the architecture of its secure access service edge (SASE).  Specifically, the company said it’s making it possible for enterprises to purchase all core SASE components including remote access, cloud security, zero trust network access and observability through a single subscription service.

Cisco integrates its SD-WAN Cloud with Megaport’s virtual edge

Cisco is making the edge more accessible by integrating Megaport’s virtual edge with Cisco’s SD-WAN Cloud Interconnect. In a blogpost, Jean-Luc Valente, VP of product management, enterprise routing and SD-WAN at Cisco, said that this partnership will enable Cisco SD-WAN customers to use Cisco’s vManage SD-WAN controller to connect to their multi-cloud deployments.

Nokia is working with Circle Fiber to deploy XGS-PON in Missouri

Circle Fiber is building a fiber-to-the-premise (FTTP) network using XGS-PON fiber technology from Nokia in Cape Girardeau County, Missouri. The network, which is based upon Nokia’s Lightspan FX series technology, will deliver up to 10 Gbps speeds.

FTC drops Qualcomm antitrust fight

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ended a long-running battle with Qualcomm over the company’s patent licensing practices, revealing it would not take the case to the Supreme Court.

NYC fastest mobile city in US, boosted by Verizon

Residents of New York City had the fastest mobile data speeds in the US in the second half of last year, according to new statistics from RootMetrics.

T-Mobile US sells its soul to Google

TMUS is expanding its reliance on Google to deliver digital products, including a premium TV service, to its customers.

TIM marks return to VC investment with UV T-Growth launch

TIM has marked its return to the venture capital space with the launch of UV T-Growth, a fund dedicated to later stage investment in companies linked to 5G technologies.

T-Mobile boosts RCS in TV reboot with Google

T-Mobile U.S. revealed plans to shut down its TVision Live streaming video service next month, teaming with Google to carry its TV ambitions forward in a deal that will also provide a boost for Rich Communication Services (RCS).

FTC finally throws in the towel over Qualcomm antitrust case

The US Federal Trade Commission reckons Qualcomm’s licensing practices are anticompetitive, but not much of the legal profession agrees.

Complementing WiFi 6 technologies with DPI intelligence

While WiFi 6 bears the potential to improve speed, latency and signal strength, how are users to maximize that potential? This article discusses the advancements brought about by WiFi 6 and how DPI adds deep intelligence to enhance the security, performance and monetization of WiFi networks and services. It looks at the new era of connectedness introduced with WiFi 6 and how DPI complements the control and management possibilities of WiFi 6 networks.

NCTC CEO Rich Fickle sets his exit

The hunt for a successor is underway amid word that Fickle is departing the National Cable Television Cooperative, a group that handles programming and tech deals for hundreds of independent operators.

Muni broadband projects win funding to tackle digital divide

US Ignite and the NSF announced winning projects of Project Overcome, a $2.7 million effort to accelerate broadband delivery to underserved communities using novel solutions.

Cable One plows ahead with 'Sparklight TV'

Cable operator confirms it has launched new IP- and app-based pay-TV service in a handful of markets even as its tech partner, MobiTV, pursues a Chapter 11 bankruptcy restructuring.

Daily Roundup: Cisco Duo Debuts Passwordless Security

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Taiwan operators taking 5G to the tech sector

Taiwan operators are steadily rolling out 5G private networks to support the island's high-tech manufacturing sector.

Acacia Plays Starring Role in Cisco’s Flattened Infrastructure

Cisco today revealed the next step in its vision for a flattened internet infrastructure that includes a routed optical networking portfolio featuring Acacia pluggable optics.

Japan's messaging Battle Royale pits telco RCS against Line

The recent misfortunes of Japan's answer to WhatsApp could be an opportunity for Japan's telecom operators.

Cisco recounts recent tech advances, previews a post-pandemic pitch

As the Cisco Live event kicks off today, the networking giant looks beyond the lockdowns and urges service providers to build the network they're going to need when the world gets moving again.

Cisco Duo Debuts Passwordless Security

Cisco Duo debuted its long-awaited passwordless authentication today at Cisco Live.

Analyst relieved T-Mobile is pulling the plug on TVision

Winding down of T-Mobile's in-house pay-TV service and teaming with YouTube TV and Philo is 'an incremental positive' for T-Mobile, analyst says. Will other MobiTV partners follow suit?

Sysdig Unifies Continuous CSPM, Multi-Cloud Threat Detection

Sysdig today rolled out a new unified cloud and container security tool, which adds continuous cloud security posture management (CSPM) to the Sysdig Secure DevOps Platform for Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform (GCP), as well as a new a free forever tier for one cloud account. 

Cisco Melds ThousandEyes, AppDynamics for Full-Stack Observability

Cisco today unveiled a full-stack observability platform that promises to eliminate blind spots holding up the adoption of software-as-a-service (SaaS), internet, and cloud services.

Cisco Jumps Into NaaS Arena

Cisco today made good on CEO Chuck Robbins’ promise to move the company’s portfolio to a subscription model with the launch of the Cisco Plus network-as-a-service (NaaS) platform.

Fungible Funnels Composable Infrastructure to the Data Center

Fungible wants to bring composable infrastructure to enterprise and service provider data centers with the launch today of its Fungible Data Center platform.

Cisco Tackles Cybersecurity’s Biggest Challenge

The biggest challenge facing the security industry is complexity, according to Cisco Secure SVP and GM Gee Rittenhouse.

OneWeb: Deals are near to plug funding gap

Britain's OneWeb has launched 146 satellites of 648, chasing SpaceX's Starlink on 1,300. But Neil Masterson's real race is for funding and customers.

Podcast: Six questions about 6G

Light Reading's Mike Dano says there are at least two big improvements coming with 6G.

Innovium Pushes Disaggregated Switching to Masses

Switch silicon vendor Innovium today announced TeraCertified, a program that attempts to ease the adoption of disaggregated networking technologies long championed my hyperscalers.

Cisco, Huawei Dominate Down Enterprise Network Market, Dell'Oro Says

Cisco and Huawei continued to dominate the enterprise network equipment market last year, though the gap between the two did shrink just a bit. Despite that continued dominance, the market overall was down in 2020 due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Verizon defends C-band plans

Verizon is pushing back against what it sees as some perceived limitations of its newly acquired C-band compared to T-Mobile’s lower 2.5 GHz mid-band for 5G. 

Ericsson CEO warns of Europe’s 5G lag behind U.S., China

Referencing the 5G progress being made in the U.S. and China, Ericsson President and CEO Börje Ekholm reiterated during an online shareholder meeting on Friday that European countries need to speed up their 5G deployments.

Congress aims for positive IMPACT on telecom workforce shortage

A trio of U.S. senators introduced new legislation that would award millions to boost minority participation in telecom job training programs, earning praise from wireless industry groups, which recently warned workforce shortages could slow 5G rollouts.

Consolidated will deliver 1-Gig to eight New Hampshire towns

Consolidated Communications will deliver 1-Gig fiber services to residents of eight New Hampshire towns as part of the company’s commitment to expanding its fiber footprint through public-private partnerships.

FBA’s 2021 priorities include workforce training, education

As it celebrates its 20th anniversary, the Fiber Broadband Association is preparing for what is shaping up to be a huge year in fiber expansion. The group, which boasts membership from all aspects of the fiber industry, including large and small telecom operators, tech firms like Google, rural electric cooperatives, municipalities and vendors like Nokia, Calex, Adtran and others, says its primary mission is to accelerate the deployment of fiber broadband in the Americas.

Facebook announces two new trans-Pacific cables

Social media giant Facebook’s continuing interest in connectivity has led it to propose two new cables linking the US and Singapore via novel routes.

Apple and Google key to rocketing eSIM figures

The number of eSIMs installed in connected devices worldwide will increase by more than 2 billion over the next four years, driven by consumer giants Apple and Google.

Amazon escalates hostilities between big tech and politicians – good

US politicians are increasingly grandstanding in opposition to technology giants and it looks like they’ve decided it’s time to fight back.

MasMovil moves for Euskaltel, pledges to retain Basque identity

Just months after Euskaltel launched its play for nationwide presence in Spain, the market’s most aggressive competitor MasMovil has swooped in and snapped it up.

Introducing Digital Network Week 2021, April 12-16

Demand for connectivity is escalating and the broadband industry is faced with the significant task of delivering the infrastructure needed to build a connected future, fast.

Telco’s fiber footprint may cover 68M U.S. homes by 2025: Report

The demand for better broadband connectivity is driving many telecom operators to make a big push to expand their fiber footprints. According to a report from financial analysts at Cowen, in 2021 telecom operators, led by AT&T, are expected to expand fiber to 5 million more homes, bringing the total homes passed in the U.S. to approximately 42 million. The firm estimates that 2025 that number could increase to 68 million homes passed with fiber, which means fiber would have a penetration rate of more than 50% in the U.S.

T-Mobile to shut down own 'TVision' services, team with YouTube TV and Philo

Says it took a 'fresh look' at how it does video, but pivot to OTT-TV partnerships stems from bankruptcy restructuring underway at MobiTV, T-Mobile's key TV software provider.

Daily Roundup: McAfee Adds Cloud-Native App Security

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Cisco Eyes Full Stack Connectivity

Cisco wants to drive connectivity through every layer of the networking stack, a move that is needed to allow enterprises to better monetize their cloud investments and one that is also becoming increasingly important as those enterprises look to drive innovation up their development stacks and deployments across the internet.

After Brexit and Huawei, UK must weigh big bet on chips

As other regions consider investments in fabs and foundries, the UK remains undecided on its future strategy, says a government advisor.

Másmóvil swoops in for Euskaltel

Spain's private equity backed Másmóvil makes 'friendly' takeover bid for Basque operator.

NBN Co stretching limits of mmWave as it preps 5G

With a world record under its belt and an eye on the millimeter wave auction, Australian broadband wholesaler NBN Co is adding 5G to its technology mix.

Meet Echo and Bifrost, Facebook's new subsea cables

The social networking giant continues its strategy of partnering with local telcos to build new infrastructure to boost connectivity.

Complementary security for Orange's Data and AI Ethics Council

Patrick Donegan of HardenStance discusses Orange's activities around AI ethics and looks at how the operator could collaborate with a much broader set of telcos.

Comcast starts to stream Disney+, ESPN+ to X1 and Flex subs

Integrations will boost exposure for Disney's streaming stable and add key premium OTT apps to Comcast's platforms for pay-TV and broadband-only customers.

Eurobites: Telecom Italia trials XGS-PON

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: TIM seals soccer deal with DAZN; London's mayor promises 4G for the Tube; is this the next chairman of BT?

Zscaler, CrowdStrike Team Up on Zero-Trust Security

Zscaler and CrowdStrike added integrations for joint customers that the partners say provide identity-centric and zero-trust security across data, people, devices, workloads, and networks.

Minerva, Shift 2 Stream also pitch MobiTV backups

IPTV pioneer Minerva is trying to make waves with its new 'YourTV Now' platform, while Shift 2 Stream, a startup led by a former Cox exec, also claims to have a viable alternative as MobiTV wends through bankruptcy.

IBM Open RAN Tech Drives Telefónica Trial

IBM recently launched an open radio access network (RAN) trial with Telefónica’s Movistar brand in Argentina that advances its efforts in the telecom and 5G space.