Intel: Confidential Computing All About Trust but Verify

As enterprises shift their workloads out of the data center and into co-location facilities or the cloud, they give up a layer of security long taken for granted: physical control over the hardware the software runs on. It’s a reality that’s driving the adoption of confidential computing, especially in the cloud, said Ron Perez, Intel’s technical lead for security architecture pathfinding, in a recent interview.

GitHub Recruits Ex-NSA Open Source Head as VP Security

GitHub is doubling down on security with the hiring of the National Security Agency’s former head of open source Jacob DePriest. He recently joined the company as VP of security operations. 

Consolidated Communications taps DZS to fuel 10G fiber upgrade

DZS scored a deal to supply broadband access technology for Consolidated Communications’ massive, multi-year fiber upgrade project, marking a key win for the vendor as it aggressively pursues growth in the fixed and mobile markets.

Altice rebrands MVNO wireless service to Optimum Mobile

Altice USA on Friday announced a rebranding of its mobile service to Optimum Mobile nationwide, as the MVNO renews a push for wireless.

Verizon bent on TracFone buy even as prepaid brand loses subs

Verizon remains adamant that its nearly $7 billion acquisition of TracFone will close before the end of the year, yet lawmakers and consumer groups continue to push for conditions on a transaction they deem harmful to consumers.

Lumen snags $52 million internet contract with U.S. Army

Lumen Technologies chalked up another government contract win, scoring a deal to provide the U.S. Army Recruiting Command with high-speed internet and voice-over-internet protocol (VoIP) services.

US Senators bid to amend Section 230 to censor social media

A couple of Democrat Senators want to make social media companies liable for public health ‘misinformation’ on their platforms.

UK consumers getting more for less in telecoms, but prices are going up

Consumers in the UK are paying less for their communications services than they were five years ago, even though data usage is increasing, according to Ofcom’s latest Pricing Trends report.

It’s towers up, small cells down for buoyant Crown Castle

Crown Castle has upped its full-year guidance for the second time this after posting a strong set of quarterlies on the back of 5G growth in the US.

Daily Roundup: AT&T Clarifies Microsoft Cloud Spin, Sees Brighter Days

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Private Sector Urges ‘Take the Gloves Off’ After China Cyberattacks

Now that the Western world has officially blamed China for the Microsoft Exchange cyberattack, which compromised more than 100,000 government and private-sector servers worldwide, private-sector security leaders expect the White House to take retaliatory action against Beijing beyond simply naming and shaming.

AT&T Clarifies Microsoft Cloud Spin, Sees Brighter Days

The AT&T decision to offload its Network Cloud technology to Microsoft late last month caused enough of a ripple that its executive team attempted to clarify the depth of that move as part of the carrier’s latest earnings call. And when it came to actual topic of its earnings, well, they were decent and expected to get better.

AT&T CEO defends Dish MVNO deal

As AT&T reported second quarter earnings Thursday, CEO John Stankey took the opportunity to counter some commentary that its MVNO deal with Dish isn’t good for the carrier.

Colt offers remote access SD-WAN to support hybrid workers

Colt Technology Services is adding a remote access feature to its SD-WAN service to allow employees to remotely access the data and applications that they need —based upon their work profile —without compromising network security or performance.  

UK government ties itself in knots over social media censorship

The UK government wants to protect us from online horridness but seems confused about how best to go about it while also protecting freedom of speech.

California, Virginia allocate $6.7 billion for broadband

The governors of California and Virginia earmarked a combined $6.7 billion to fuel broadband expansions in their states, as Congress dragged its feet approving an infrastructure package which could provide billions more from federal coffers.

AT&T boasts major subscriber gains in Q2, adds 789K

AT&T had a huge second quarter for wireless subscriber gains, smashing Wall Street expectations with 789,000 postpaid net phone additions.

India’s Bharti Airtel taps Intel for 4G, 5G vRAN

Intel and Bharti Airtel announced a collaboration toward virtualized radio access network (vRAN) and open RAN technology on Airtel’s path to 5G.

AT&T adds 246k fiber subs in Q2, tips momentum to accelerate

AT&T executives hailed growing momentum in its fiber business after posting strong net additions in Q2 and predicted the pace of subscriber growth will pick up in the back half of the year as large swaths of new coverage come online.

Comcast slashes time to find fiber cuts from 2 hours to 2 mins

Comcast is putting outdated optical spectrum analyzers to work to boost local network reliability, using them as part of a new performance monitoring system which can slash the time it takes to pinpoint fiber cuts from two hours to less than two minutes.

AT&T turns telco in Latin America too

AT&T is selling another of its content operations, this time in Latin America, as it looks to focus on the connectivity side of the business there, much like it is doing back home.

Nokia teams up with consulting firm CGI to create ‘5G lab’ in London

Tech consulting giant CGI will use Nokia kit in a new 5G lab that is intended to showcase how great it is.

Shentel targets field service efficiencies amid fiber push

Shenandoah Telecommunications Company (Shentel) teamed with CSG to deploy its cloud-based Field Service Management platform, aiming to streamline operations and reap cost efficiencies as it aggressively expands its fiber and fixed wireless access footprints.

Spain nets €1 billion in lacklustre 700 MHz sale

Spain has finally auctioned off spectrum in the 700 MHz band, but bidding was lacklustre at best, with the final total only just exceeding the reserve price.

Intel Posts Q2 Beat, Gelsinger Downplays Foundry M&A

Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger downplayed foundry acquisition rumors telling analysts the company was “very happy” with the buildout of its foundry business during the company’s second-quarter 2021 earnings call.

Daily Roundup: Cato Ribs Palo Alto Networks, Other SASE Imposters

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Cisco Report: CISOs’ SASE Spend Edges Toward 75% of Budget

Almost all (98%) CISOs plan to spend money on secure access service edge (SASE), and 55% of them intend to prioritize 25% to 75% of future IT security budgets on it, according to Cisco’s latest CISO Survival Guide.

Masergy, GTT Bolster SD-WAN, Aryaka Nabs Vodafone Win

Managed secure access service edge (SASE) provider Masergy this week unveiled its latest product, which promises to make public broadband perform more like private Ethernet.

Cato Ribs Palo Alto Networks, Other SASE Imposters

Delivering a true secure access service edge (SASE) platform requires rethinking decades of networking and security principles and embracing cloud-native architectures — something few vendors today can claim, according to Cato CMO Yishay Yovel.

Ericsson, MediaTek notch 495 Mbps uplink speed with mmWave

Ericsson and MediaTek are claiming a new uplink speed record after a successful test using carrier aggregation and millimeter wave spectrum.

Metro by T-Mobile launches iPhone 12 mini offer

Metro by T-Mobile is preparing to offer the 5G-capable iPhone 12 mini on the house, and it’s coming with access to T-Mobile’s nationwide 5G network on all plans. The offer starts July 22.

Bharti does 5G OpenRAN deal with Intel

Bharti Airtel has inked a mobile networks deal with Intel that will see it tap into the flexibility of OpenRAN technology as it rolls out 5G.

Cox offers wireless backup service to small businesses

Cox Business today launched Net Assurance for small business owners to protect them from completely losing their internet connection during outages.

Verizon ends big 5G upgrade promo

Verizon’s offer for the “biggest 5G upgrade ever” ends today, answering the question on a lot of minds: Was that a “promotion” in the sense of the usual definition or a sign of the way business is being done in wireless for the foreseeable future?

Verizon Fios revenue of $2.9B soars past pre-pandemic tally

Verizon posted its highest consumer Fios revenue since adopting its current reporting structure in 2019, as strong subscriber gains continued to drive sales growth.

Verizon adds 275K wireless postpaid phone subscribers in Q2

Verizon grew wireless subscribers and service revenue in the second quarter while it stepped customers into higher tier unlimited plans, leading to upped expectations for 2021.

Verizon also entrusts its messaging and RCS to Google

Following in the footsteps of T-Mobile and AT&T, the last of America’s “big three” Verizon announced that Android Messages will be the default bearer of its RCS messaging service from next year.

Viavi’s improved offer is once more dismissed by Exfo

The drama never stops in the crazy world of telecoms test and measurement, with US outfit Viavi persisting with its unsolicited bids for Canadian rival Exfo.

Orange wants a stake in Ethio Telecom

Orange has formally declared its interest in buying into Ethio Telecom, almost three months after it declined to participate in the sale of new telecoms licences in the country.

Daily Roundup: Verizon Rides Samsung’s First Massive MIMO 5G vRAN Wave

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Cisco Boosts Circular Design Goals

Cisco is “making good progress” on its goal to incorporate circular design principles into all of its new products by 2025, Cisco’s director of circular economy Katie Schindall told SDxCentral.

Microsoft Buys CloudKnox for Zero-Trust Security Boost

Microsoft’s security buying spree continued today with CloudKnox, a startup that built a multi-cloud permissions management platform to protect cloud infrastructure and identities. The companies did not disclose the terms of the deal.

Verizon Capex Declines Amid Mid-Band 5G Ramp

Verizon today said mid-band 5G deployment activity is on pace to cover 100 million people within the next nine months, but a 15% year-over-year decline in capex during second-quarter 2021 doesn’t fully support that claim.

Op-Ed: Will Open Cybersecurity Standards (Finally) Take Off?

Global standards body OASIS recently approved STIX and TAXII, two popular open source projects that automate threat-intelligence sharing, as full-fledged standards.

VMware Security Head Jumps Ship For Open Systems

Tom Corn, former SVP of security at VMware, is the latest executive to depart the company in search of greener pastures. Corn today announced he’s joined managed security and networking vendor Open Systems as CPO.

Analyst: Dish deal ‘terrible’ for AT&T

If you want to stir up folks in the wireless industry, just utter the words: “AT&T has let Dish off the hook.” That’s what long-time analyst Craig Moffett did on Monday, and a lot of people took notice.

AT&T, JBG Smith disclose plans for at-scale 5G smart city

AT&T on Tuesday said it signed a letter of intent with real-estate owner and developer JBG Smith to build the first at-scale 5G smart city in the U.S.

Nokia sees limited convergence of IP, optical architecture

Cisco recently pitched the proliferation of ZR and ZR+ pluggables as a technological tipping point which will enable operators to merge the IP and optical elements of the network into a single layer. But Nokia’s message on the subject is a bit more nuanced, boiling down to the saying “one size doesn’t fit all.”

Charter gets cracking on RDOF builds in 3 states

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has yet to distribute funding to the winners of its Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) Phase I auction, but that isn’t stopping Charter Communications from getting to work on rural coverage expansion projects.

Vodafone and Nokia unveil new network AI running on Google Cloud

UK operator group Vodafone and Finnish kit vendor Nokia have been mucking about with artificial intelligence to detect network anomalies.

Verizon jumps on Google train for RCS

Verizon is no longer the last holdout when it comes to joining Google’s support for Rich Communications Services (RCS) on Android devices. Verizon today announced a collaboration with Google to expand advanced messaging services to Android users in the U.S., starting next year.

Masergy improves broadband packet loss for its SD-WAN

Software-defined wide area networking (SD-WAN) provider Masergy says it has a patent-pending innovation — called Masergy Performance Edge — that minimizes packet loss over public broadband connections.

Who is calling and why? T-Mobile trial boosts caller ID

Aiming to boost customer confidence in picking up phone calls from unknown numbers, T-Mobile and partners completed a wireless call that used authenticated caller ID and showed details like company branding to provide more information about who was calling and why.

Cox Communications taps new head as CEO Esser plans retirement

Cox Communications announced longtime CEO Patrick Esser will retire at the end of 2021, with current EVP and Chief Sales and Marketing Officer Mark Greatrex set to lead the company following his exit.

Windstream’s wholesale unit lights up 354 towers with fiber

Windstream’s Kinetic Wholesale division connected 354 wireless macro towers to its fiber network in Q2 2021, with the company hinting cell site densification for 5G could fuel many more such connections over the coming years.

Comcast starts selling wireless plans to small businesses

Comcast Business today extended Comcast's mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) wireless service to small business customers across its national footprint.

Virgin Media O2 part of consortium testing ubiquitous coverage in Cornwall

Darwin Innovation Group, Virgin Media O2, Amazon Web Services and others are trying out a technology that instantly switches between 5G and satellite connectivity.

Dish does $5 billion network deal with AT&T

Dish has inked a mobile network services deal with AT&T that is worth in excess of US$5 billion over the next decade.

Telstra in talks to acquire Digicel Pacific in bid to keep China at bay

Telstra has confirmed that it is working with the Australian government on a takeover bid for part of the Digicel group, a move that is being widely viewed as politically motivated.

Verizon Rides Samsung’s First Massive MIMO 5G vRAN Wave

Verizon has some of Samsung and the industry’s first fully virtualized 5G radio access network (RAN) equipment for mid-band spectrum packing massive MIMO. It might even be the first operator with such equipment thanks to its contract with Samsung.

IBM’s Modest Results Beat Modest Expectations

IBM reported second-quarter 2021 financial results that exceeded modest expectations, bolstered by continued strong growth from its Red Hat-led hybrid cloud operations and ongoing confidence that it will meet lofty financial goals. The news was an appreciated upside to counter the recent exit of a top Red Hat executive.

Daily Roundup: Google, Palo Alto Networks Push IDS to the Cloud

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Equinix Chases Science-Based Eco Targets, Battles Emissions ‘Dilemma’

Equinix committed to a slew of science-based environmental targets in June, though some of its key environmental metrics continue to rise in tandem with the vendor’s growth. 

Cisco Confronts ‘Inexcusable’ Internet Access Divide

Cisco aims to improve the availability and affordability of interest access through its recently opened Rural Broadband Innovation Center in North Carolina.

Google Cloud, Palo Alto Networks Push IDS to the Cloud

Google Cloud tapped Palo Alto Networks’ threat detection for its new managed intrusion detection system, Cloud IDS, available in preview today.

Sysdig Shifts Security Further Left With Apolicy Acquisition

Sysdig today announced plans to acquire Apolicy, a company offering security and compliance for cloud-native applications based in the U.S. and Israel. The deal will allow Sysdig to shift security further left by integrating Apolicy’s infrastructure as code (IaC) technology into its platform to better secure DevOps workflows.

Ericsson loses share, Nokia secures 5G win with China Mobile

China Mobile announced vendor awards for its latest round of 5G contracts, with Ericsson losing ground against a backdrop of geopolitical tensions and Nokia notably scoring a 5G RAN win in China.

Ericsson got just 2% of China Mobile’s 700MHz radio award

As anticipated, Ericsson was awarded just 2% of the available base station work for China Mobile’s 700 MHz 5G rollout, with even Nokia getting more.

Dish signs $5B MVNO deal with AT&T

Dish Network signed a 10-year agreement with AT&T that makes AT&T the primary network services partner for Dish MVNO customers. It’s worth at least $5 billion.

Bell Canada selects Google Cloud for IT transformation

Bell Canada is the latest service provider to announce a big partnership with a public cloud provider. Bell Canada has chosen to work with Google Cloud to power Bell’s company-wide digital transformation and enhance its network and IT infrastructure.

Senators prod FCC on RDOF funding delays

After the close of the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) in December 2020, Congress in January urged the agency to thoroughly vet the winning bidders to ensure the money wouldn’t be squandered. But with funding yet to be distributed seven months down the line, two key Senators have asked the FCC to explain what’s taking so long.

US and allies accuse China of ‘malicious cyber activity’

America and its mates, including the UK, have got together to denounce China’s apparent habit of indulging in state-sponsored cyber mischief.

TIM to take 2021 earnings hit on football deal

Italian operator group TIM is upbeat about the impact its controversial football streaming deal with DAZN will have on its core financial metrics in the next couple of years.

State phone-hacking rears its ugly head once more

A set of reports has been published that alleges some countries are using malware to spy on political opponents, activists and journalists.

Telefonica creates another fibre JV, this time in Colombia

Telefonica is spinning off its fibre business in Colombia and has agreed to sell a majority stake to KKR, lopping US$200 million off its debt pile in the process.

Daily Roundup: Intel Weighs GlobalFoundries Buy to Bolster Capacity

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Stellar Cyber Puts the Kill Chain in XDR

Stellar Cyber updated its extended detection and response (XDR) platform with a new XDR Kill Chain that the security vendor says stop attacks quicker.