Google’s Supply Chain Data Targets Eco Impacts

Google Cloud recently began allowing its customers to partake of a sustainability tool that provides insight into how organizations can reduce the environmental impact of their supply chains. 

SDxCentral's Top 10 Articles — July 2021

Check out our top 10 articles for July 2021 covering the SDxCentral universe of cloud, telecom, security, and networking. Rankings are based on unique visitors aggregated during the month.

Cisco Eyes App Security, SASE, Cloud Native M&A

Cisco’s security investments and acquisitions focused on secure access service edge (SASE), extended detection and response (XDR), and DevSecOps for the last three years. And as she looks ahead, Cisco Investments VP Janey Hoe expects to see continued development and innovation in application security, SASE, and cloud-native security.

AT&T, BT tackle cloud-native 5G

Cloud infrastructure is something both AT&T and BT are pursuing, but they’re taking different approaches as each looks to speed up the introduction and delivery of software in a cloud-native core environment to ultimately support new services.

Changes coming to wireless competition in the fall — Moore

It’s been a quiet summer.  In summer 2020, carriers were dealing with closed stores amid a pandemic while Sprint was absorbed into T-Mobile. This summer has been much quieter. Apart from some drama over whether Verizon and/or T-Mobile will join AT&T in making its best deals available even with upgrades, things have been slow. Carrier reps are telling our analysts that phone sales

Dish’s switch to AT&T doesn’t mess with T-Mobile’s plans: CEO

T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert is putting – what else? – a positive spin on Dish Network’s decision to jump off T-Mobile’s network and onto AT&T’s network as part of a longer-term MVNO deal to serve Boost Mobile and other customers.

Cable MVNOs add 550,000 wireless subs in Q2

The big three U.S. mobile operators collectively added nearly 1.5 million postpaid phone subscribers in Q2 2021. But cable MVNOs continued to nip at their heels, growing wireless subscribers and revenue at a healthy clip.

Charter adds 400K broadband subs in Q2, eyes enterprise runway

Charter Communications executives eyed gains in the enterprise market, noting the company is working to position itself to take share as business activity returns to normal after a pandemic-related slowdown.

New subs bolster T-Mobile’s quarter, again

T-Mobile USA reported a strong Q2, which the company attributed to growth of its subscriber base, outgrowing its direct competitors AT&T and Verizon.

Shentel set to pay investors $937 million after wireless sale

Coming off the completion of a $1.94 billion wireless asset sale, Shenandoah Telecommunications (Shentel) next week will pay $937 million to its investors in the form of an $18.75-per-share dividend, Shentel chief Chris French said on the company’s second quarter earnings call Friday.

Terahertz gets ready to shine in 6G: Special Report

It took a long time for folks to get used to the idea of using millimeter wave (mmWave) frequencies for 5G wireless communications. Verizon, for one, spent a lot of money on mmWave, only to have some Wall Street analysts and others continue to second-guess its decisions.

Inmarsat orchestrates new hybrid network

Satellite operator to invest $100m in at least 150 LEO satellites to create a multi-orbit constellation combined with a terrestrial 5G network.

Are we seeing the beginning of the end of big tech’s good pandemic in Amazon’s quarterly?

Amazon has delivered another solid quarter, but the numbers fell short of market expectations. When looked together with the latest financial results from other big tech companies, it is tempting to ask if the pandemic bonus is coming to an end.

Eurobites: Xavier Niel bids €3.1 billion to take Iliad private

Also in today’s EMEA regional round-up: Proximus earnings slip in Q2; Sparkle teams up with Google on subsea links; Orange sets targets.

T-Mobile blows through Q2 with 627K net phone adds

T-Mobile reported another “beat and raise” quarter as it gained 1.3 million postpaid subscribers in the second quarter of 2021, ahead of Street estimates of 1.1 million. It also raised 2021 guidance across the board.

Open Connect in the Era of 5G

Fierce Wireless publisher Kevin Gray recently sat down with STL CEO of Access Solutions to discuss 5G: telecom network changes, greenfield vs. brownfield deployments, the journey from legacy to open connect, new opportunities, the seamless ecosystem, and more!

T-Mobile Steamrolls 5G Competition, Sows Durable Growth

T-Mobile US continues to steamroll the competition on 5G. The mobile network operator’s low-band 5G network now covers 305 million people, including 92% of interstate highways across the country, and its mid-band 5G network covers 165 million people. 

Daily Roundup: Fortinet Rings In Robust Q2 With ZTNA Bundle, Firewall

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American Tower touts expanded European footprint

American Tower is focused on its expanded European presence, having closed most of its Telxius Towers acquisition from Telefónica in the second quarter.

Altice USA broadband sub growth grinds to a halt in Q2

Altice USA executives expressed optimism new builds and network upgrades would help it juice broadband subscriber growth in the back half of 2021 and into 2022, after a jump in churn left it with almost no gains in Q2.

Virgin Media O2 goes all-in on fibre and mulls broadband wholesale market

The newly merged Virgin Media O2 announced its plan to upgrade all its fixed network in the UK to fibre. The operator is also assessing the prospect to become a fixed broadband wholesaler.

Virgin Media O2 goes all in on full FTTP

U.K. operator Virgin Media O2 outlined a plan to upgrade its entire fixed network to full fiber-to-the-premises over the coming years, announcing the move alongside its first-ever quarterly report.

UTOPIA Fiber exec says providers dread ‘overbuilding’

The Biden administration’s infrastructure bill is still in flux, but it could potentially provide as much as $65 billion for new broadband infrastructure in the United States to close the digital divide.

Qualcomm trots out familiar tune in Q3: upbeat

Qualcomm focused on a familiar theme during its fiscal third-quarter earnings call: diversifying beyond phones in the 5G era.

Nokia marks early progress on turnaround with Q2 growth

Nokia reported progress in the second quarter, with 4% net sales growth year over year to EUR 5.31 billion ($6.3 billion). CEO Pekka Lundmark said results showed a good start to the vendor’s turnaround strategy but emphasized there is still work to do.

Xiaomi takes second place from Apple in Q2 global smartphone market

Samsung and Apple experienced an exceptional drop-off in smartphone sales volumes in the second quarter, allowing Chinese vendors to gain ground.

Consolidated accelerates fiber build in 2Q

Regional telco Consolidated Communications continues to make big strides in its fiber deployment plans. During the company’s second quarter earnings call with investors, CEO Bob Udell, said the company added 76,000 new fiber locations in the quarter, a significant increase from the 45,800 locations it added in the first quarter. Udell said that with 122,000 fiber upgrades completed so far in 2021

Comcast notches record Q2 broadband adds with 354,000

Comcast’s cable division significantly ramped capital spending in Q2 2021, investing in scalable infrastructure to accelerate network upgrades as broadband net additions continued to climb.

Eurobites: Pain in Spain punches hole in Orange’s Q1

Also in today’s EMEA regional results-fest round-up: Telefónica’s Q2 boosted by Virgin Media O2 merger and Telxius deal; BT’s fiscal Q1 dented by corporate and public sector struggles; Cellnex puts in a towering performance in H1.

FierceWireless presents its 2021 class of Rising Stars

For 2021, FierceWireless looked for executives aged 35 or younger who are making a name for themselves in the wireless industry.   The 11 young executives in our final slate were nominated by their companies, and they come from diverse business units, ranging from customer experience, to engineering, to retail operations, to human resources.

Nokia reports a strong Q2 21 on the back of fixed-line infrastructure growth

All the indicators are moving in the right direction for Finnish kit vendor Nokia, which saw its share price jump after announcing its Q2 2021 numbers.

Supply Chain Squeeze Depresses Nokia’s Growth

The supply-chain squeeze will limit Nokia’s growth through at least 2021, CEO Pekka Lundmark said during the company’s second-quarter 2021 earnings call. 

Fortinet Rings In Robust Q2 With ZTNA Bundle, Firewall

Fortinet rang in a strong second quarter today by launching a new enterprise-class firewall and subscription security service targeting remote access and identity management.

Cisco Goes All Hybrid With ‘No Return to Office’ Policy

Cisco says it’s all in on all hybrid work, and today the company announced a “no return to office” policy that lets individual employees and their managers decide how and where each staffer will work.

Red Hat Nuzzles Nutanix to Vex VMware Velocity

Red Hat and Nutanix are cozying up to make it easier for their respective customers to tap into their joint hybrid-cloud focused offerings. The move is predicated on vocal demand from customers and allows both to better target rivals like VMware.

Daily Roundup: Juniper Posts Strong Q2, Warns of Supply Chain Headwinds

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Amazon Cloud Biz Hits $59B Run Rate

Amazon’s cloud growth rate continued to climb in the second quarter of 2021, indicating a potential ongoing upward trend for the world’s largest hyperscaler. 

New broadband clause in U.S. infra deal could hurt AT&T, Lumen

New Street Research warned AT&T, Frontier Communications and Lumen Technologies could be negatively impacted by a new broadband provision which takes aim at “digital redlining" in the latest version of a $1.2 trillion U.S. infrastructure deal.

U.S. counts more than 417K cell sites as of 2020

As carriers densify networks and build out 5G, the number of cell sites in the U.S. grew to 417,215 by the end of 2020, according to a survey from CTIA.

Verizon bags $78.8M Air National Guard contract

Verizon’s Public Sector business inked its second deal with the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) in as many months, this time nabbing a $78.8 million contract to help the Air National Guard (ANG) modernize its network services.

T-Mobile targets Boost, Cricket in new prepaid offer

T-Mobile is taking the gloves off – if they were ever on – in its fight for prepaid customers. Today, the company announced that Metro by T-Mobile is offering a $25/month plan to entice Boost and Cricket customers over to its 5G network. The offer starts July 29.

Inside the zero-trust networking and SASE land grab — Raynovich

You may be overwhelmed with cybersecurity acronyms and buzzwords — I know that as an analyst it's hard to follow FWaaS, SWG, DLP, DDoS, APT, ATP, and ASVs. Now some new ones have arrived — Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) and Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA), so it's important to define what they are and what they mean.

Pica8 hires 2 familiar networking veterans

Pica8 hired two familiar software and networking industry veterans. Kelly LeBlanc has been appointed as chief marketing officer, and Mike Hoffman has been hired as chief revenue officer. These hires follow on the heels of its recent Series C funding of more than $20 million.

Turns out young people don’t really watch TV news

UK communications regulator Ofcom has worked out that younger people mainly get their news from the internet.

Juniper revenue tops $1.1B in Q2 as record orders roll in

Juniper Networks posted strong Q2 2021 results, with revenue rising 8% year-on-year despite challenges associated with a global semiconductor shortage.

Eurobites: Telecom Italia sees earnings slide 5.8% in Q2

Also in today’s EMEA regional round-up: Arcep consults on 5G interference; Vodafone ads rapped; Spotify hits bum note on MAUs.

US tech giants make tons of cash, again

Another quarter, another record haul for America’s technology giants as Apple, Google and Microsoft all report their Q2 numbers.

Juniper Posts Strong Q2, Warns of Supply Chain Headwinds

Juniper Networks this week posted strong second-quarter revenues marking the company’s second consecutive quarter of year-over-year growth. However, ongoing growth could be impacted by broader supply chain constraints.

Daily Roundup: Google Cloud Losses Shrink 59%, Revenue Hits $4.6B

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Linkerd Nabs CNCF Diploma, Counters Istio’s ‘Empty Calories’

Linkerd hit graduation status at the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), marking a significant milestone as the first service mesh to earn a diploma. It also adds much-needed stability to the service mesh space that has been dogged by considerable consternation following Google’s controversial move last year for the popular Istio service mesh project.

Microsoft, Rakuten, VMware Execs Reject Open RAN Criticism

Open radio access network (RAN) criticism? “We’ve heard enough of it,” Rakuten Mobile CTO Tareq Amin said during the Open RAN Policy Coalition’s Quad Open RAN Forum. 

How to Fix Cybersecurity Skills Gap? Competitive Pay

How to close the cybersecurity skills gap? Here’s a novel idea: pay security professionals better.

Orange Taps Palo Alto Networks for Cloud Security

Orange this week tapped Palo Alto Networks’ Prisma Cloud platform to protect its own internal cloud migration.

New York tops 5G availability among major cities, lags on speed

Among 30 major cities around the world, 5G users are likely to be connected most often in New York. But when it comes to speed, NYC ranks near the bottom of the list, according to a new Ookla report.

Qualcomm and Capgemini team for private networks

Qualcomm has partnered with Capgemini to help the integrator offer clients “off-the-shelf” private wireless networks. The partners foresee Capgemini pairing Qualcomm’s radio solutions with edge compute resources and core network elements supplied by other vendors.

STL’s $21M purchase of Clearcomm advances its U.K. fiber goals

India-based STL purchased U.K-based Clearcomm Group for about $21.5 million to advance its fiber ambitions, especially its fiber ambitions in Britain.

Google Cloud revenue climbs 54% in Q2

Alphabet executives detailed plans to continue aggressive investments in the company’s Google Cloud business, as the unit posted a 54% year-on-year jump in revenue in Q2.

Researchers tease capacity gains from fiber with optical combs

A group of researchers inched closer to untangling the problem of how to add capacity to fiber networks in a way that’s both simple and easy to control, announcing a breakthrough in optical comb technology.

Vodafone wants U.K. government to propel 5G private networks

The U.K. government is pursuing an initiative to “level up” parts of Britain that are less prosperous than the London area. Vodafone UK commissioned a report that finds 5G private networks are a way to level up manufacturing operations in rural parts of the U.K. And Vodafone makes several recommendations to the U.K. government to tap private wireless networks for manufacturing.

Crown Castle cuts small cell outlook in half for 2021, 2022

Crown Castle International expects to roll out about 5,000 small cells in 2021 compared to its previous expectation for about 10,000 small cells, a change it attributes to a combination of factors, including carriers’ desire to use macro sites for near-term 5G deployments.

CBRS 5G RAN forecast approaches $1B by 2025

The overall Citizens Broadband Radio Services (CBRS) market sentiment remains healthy, with cumulative 2020-2025 CBRS 5G Radio Access Network (RAN) investments expected to approach $500 million to $1 billion, according to the Dell’Oro Group.

Lumen ramps focus on Europe as fiber, edge demand grows

Lumen Technologies just inked a $2.7 billion deal to sell its Latin America assets to investment firm Stonepeak in a move designed to free up capital to pursue key growth areas. And moving forward, it looks like Europe will be near the top of its list of investment priorities. 

Verizon, Samsung fire up 5G vRAN trial on C-band

Verizon continues to put Samsung virtualized radio access network (vRAN) gear to the test in preparation for C-band deployments, successfully completing a fully virtualized 5G data session using a C-band Massive MIMO radio in live network trials.

Vodafone and Three want more UK government help with 5G

Two UK telcos are urging the government to do more to push 5G along, especially in the areas of manufacturing and FWA, for the good of the country of course.

Eurobites: KPN turns a corner in Q2

Also in today’s EMEA regional round-up: T-Systems heads deeper into the Google Cloud; customer satisfaction (or not) in France; Telefónica Tech takes up with CrowdStrike.

Intel vows to regain chip leadership from TSMC and Samsung by 2025

Once dominant chip maker Intel shared its R&D and foundry roadmaps for the next four years, during which it plans to regain the global leader position, and unveiled two marquee customers in AWS and Qualcomm.

Lumen flogs its Latin American business for $2.7 billion

US B2B comms company has delivered on its promise to dispose of non-core assets by selling its LatAm operations to hedge fund Stonepeak.

Cloud Foundry Builds TOC, Promotes Transparency

The Cloud Foundry Foundation (CFF) launched a Technical Oversight Committee (TOC) to replace its Project Management Committee and promote greater transparency into its operations. 

AMD Doubles Revenue to $3.85B in Record Quarter

AMD ended the second quarter of 2021 on a high note, nearly doubling revenues from the prior year and more than tripling net income during the same period.

Microsoft Cloud Stabilizes at 51% Growth Rate

Microsoft Azure public cloud revenue growth remains strong at 51% and locked into a less volatile pattern. 

Google Cloud Losses Shrink 59%, Revenue Hits $4.6B

Google Cloud revenue grew 54% year over year to $4.62 billion during the second quarter of 2021. Perhaps even more impressive: Google Cloud’s operating loss shrunk 59%, from $1.42 billion a year ago to $591 million.

Nokia Exec Forges 5G Strategies in vRAN, Open RAN

Advancements required to deliver fully virtualized radio access networks (vRAN) will likely continue through this decade, a pace that matches efforts to virtualize network cores a decade prior, said Jane Rygaard Pederson, Nokia’s head of dedicated wireless networks and edge clouds, in an interview with SDxCentral.

Verizon and Samsung Complete Fully Virtualized 5G Data Session on C-band Spectrum

Verizon and Samsung Electronics recently completed an end-to-end fully virtualized 5G data session over C-band spectrum in a live network environment. The new milestone was reached in preparation for its upcoming 5G Ultra Wideband expansion using its newly acquired C Band spectrum.

Intel CEO Calls Nanometers Meaningless, Rebrands Process Tech

Intel today abandoned its decades-old tradition of naming process technologies based on transistor gate widths — a practice CEO Pat Gelsinger called a meaningless bar for comparison during a press conference on Monday.

IBM Report: Data-Breach Costs Hit 17-Year High of $4.24M

Data-breach costs jumped nearly 10% from an average of $3.86 million to $4.24 million per incident over the past year, according to IBM’s latest Cost of a Data Breach Report. It marks the highest average total cost in this report’s 17-year history and the largest single-year increase in the last seven years. 

Daily Roundup: IBM Launches Turnium’s Containerized SD-WAN Into Cloud

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Verizon 5G Sails Samsung’s vRAN Massive MIMO

Verizon and Samsung successfully completed a fully virtualized 5G data session on the operator’s recently acquired C-band spectrum in three locations. It marks another accomplishment that puts Verizon in position to be the first operator with fully virtualized 5G radio access network (RAN) equipment packing massive MIMO.

Virgin Media O2 taps Ericsson for standalone 5G core in U.K.

Recently formed Virgin Media O2 joined forces earlier this year and has now tapped Ericsson to deploy a 5G standalone core, utilizing the Swedish vendor’s cloud infrastructure.

LTD Broadband dealt blow as FCC approves $311M in RDOF funds

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) dealt LTD Broadband a blow as it announced an initial batch of $311 million in support for winners of the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Phase (RDOF) I auction, denying the operator’s request for more time to prove its funding eligibility in three states.

US Mobile secures $11.5M in funding, eSIM and retail coming

US Mobile is gearing up for eSIM and 5G as the MVNO plans expansion, including retail, after raising $11.5 million in Series A funding from Volition Capital.

FCC remains ‘murkier than ever,’ says NSR analyst

Few probably would have guessed that the industry would still be waiting around in late July for the Biden Administration to name a permanent FCC chair, but that’s where things stand.

Rogers upgrades transport network to 400G ZR+ with Ribbon

Canadian operator Rogers Communications tapped Ribbon Communications to help it upgrade its optical transport network, selecting the latter to supply 400G ZR+ technology.

Telenor uses multi vendors for its open-source 5G core

Media splashes by Dish and Rakuten may be proof that open-source software has revolutionized the telecom industry, but most brownfield operators have yet to see meaningful cost reductions related to free, community-developed software.  

Lumen inks $2.7B deal to sell its Latin America business

Lumen Technologies struck a deal to sell its Latin America business to infrastructure investment firm Stonepeak for $2.7 billion in a move to free up more cash for its growth ambitions.

Eurobites: Telefónica moves further into data analytics

Also in today’s EMEA regional round-up: Telecom Italia prepares for DAZN probe; Nokia gets into testbeds with Greece’s 5G Ventures; Virgin Media O2 sets up ‘national databank’ for the barely connected.

Ericsson gets Virgin Media O2 5G SA core gig

Swedish kit vendor Ericsson’s relationship with O2 UK has been maintained after the latter’s merger with Virgin Media.

Vodafone reportedly seeking to further reduce its exposure to India

Last week the Indian Supreme Court rejected another appeal to lower the amount of money operators owe the government and it looks like Vodafone is running out of patience.

Unleashing the Power of Advanced Analytics

Scientia potentia est – knowledge is power - is the phrase attributed to 16th century English philosopher Sir Francis Bacon. The better informed you are, the more appropriate your behavior in any number of situations, both proactive and reactive. We know that we have a torrent of data generated by today’s hyper-connected world at our fingertips – how can we transform this into knowledge, and unlock

IBM Launches Turnium’s Containerized SD-WAN Into Cloud

Turnium Technology Group today announced a collaboration with IBM to deploy its cloud-native SD-WAN platform on the IBM Cloud for Telecommunications service.

Daily Roundup: GitHub Recruits Ex-NSA Open Source Head as VP Security

In case you’ve been stuck in video conference meetings all day, here are today’s top stories from SDxCentral. Also, make sure to subscribe to our daily newsletters to get these stories in your inbox.