Saturday, August 07, 2021

Headcount: Firings, Hirings, and Retirings — July 2021

Here are some of the latest executive hirings, promotions, and staff changes that happened in July. 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 Emma Chervek (echervek@sdxcentral.com) for inclusion in the monthly headcount column.

Friday, August 06, 2021

Fiber is all the rage but DOCSIS isn’t dead: CableLabs

It feels as if all eyes are on fiber at the moment, with money pouring in and deployment commitments piling up. Operators playing in this space have largely dismissed cable as obsolete, with Frontier Communications CEO Nick Jeffery stating this week cable won’t be able to keep up with multi-gigabit speeds on fiber. But an expert from CableLabs contended DOCSIS isn’t dead – and won’t be for a while.

Closure of Sprint 4G network probably not a big deal to T-Mobile US

When T-Mobile US published its Q2 results last week it once again talked up the progress it is making in integrating Sprint and upgraded its merger synergies guidance for the second consecutive quarter. But it didn’t think to mention its plans for closing down Sprint’s LTE network next summer; it took the eagle eyes of LightReading to notice it had sneaked that piece of information onto its Website.

Thursday, August 05, 2021

Verizon 5G Edge Rides 3 More AWS Wavelength Markets

Verizon expanded the reach of its 5G Edge deployment to three new markets as it expands its reliance on Amazon Web Services’ (AWS) Wavelength edge compute service. The carrier also launched a new onramp for developers to take advantage of that expanded reach.

Cybersecurity Is the New ‘Great Game’

Building a national cyber-defense plan took center stage at this week’s Black Hat cybersecurity event. “The [Great Game] is playing out in cyberspace right now,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in his closing remarks.

Lumen’s path forward remains rocky despite Apollo deal: analysts

Lumen Technologies this week agreed to sell ILEC assets in 20 states to investment firm Apollo Global Management for $7.5 billion, striking its second major divestiture deal in as many months after offloading its Latin America business for $2.7 billion. The operator pitched the former move as a positive, arguing it would allow the company to accelerate investments in fiber deployments in its remaining footprint. But analysts warned the deals aren’t all good news for Lumen.

MTN walks away from Ethiopia despite mobile money permit clause

Ethiopia has formally announced that it will launch the process to award a second new mobile licence later this month, including a permit to offer financial services. But despite the removal of what has been widely seen as a key stumbling block in the liberalisation of the country’s telecoms market, African telco giant MTN is reportedly no longer interested.

CTS and Druid Software partner for private networks

Systems integrator Communications Technology Services (CTS) has formed another partnership around private wireless, announcing plans to enhance its CBRS private network capabilities by integrating Druid Software's Raemis platform. Druid provides core network software which can be deployed at customer premises or in a cloud environment.

Rakuten to build mobile network for 1&1

Rakuten announced partnership with 1&1 to build “Europe’s first fully virtualised mobile network” for the German greenfield operator. The company also set up a separate unit to drive global expansion.

Event Showcases a Bright Future for Telecom

Communications service providers recognize that 5G and edge computing represent a ripe opportunity to develop new revenue streams for both consumer and enterprise customers, while significantly reducing costs. They also recognize that to capture this opportunity they must develop and deploy a consistent operating model across their network and operations that adheres to cloud-native principles and is based on infrastructure from an open ecosystem of suppliers. These are among the topics explored in a Dell Technologies Telecom Transformation Event, now available for viewing on demand.Click here to read the full blog post.

Wednesday, August 04, 2021

Rakuten CTO: We’re done with secrets

With a newly created entity Symphony what’s next for Rakuten and open RAN? According to CTO Tareq Amin, having already quelled much of the earlier uncertainty and doubts around the technology, the next phase of growth is around simple things.

Cisco Security Execs Tout Top 5 Tips

Cisco security executives laid out five real-world tips enterprise incident response (IR) teams should focus on in dealing with potential cyberattacks. The tips included key technologies and processes those teams should have already deployed or have on hand in order to deal with a security incident. 

Rakuten creates Symphony, expands RCP ambitions

Rakuten is taking ambitions for exporting its own learnings and platforms to a new level, creating a new business organization, Rakuten Symphony, to incorporate options for telco operators that span digital internet-based platforms, network functions and OSS/BSS automation to cloud infrastructure and more.

RDOF winners defaulted on $78M in bids — much more could follow

The telecom industry rejoiced when the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced last week it was prepared to release the first batch of funding — some $311 million — from the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) Phase I auction. But in the same breath the agency revealed a long list of winning bidders have already defaulted on their obligations and hinted many more could soon follow suit. So, where exactly do things stand?

Corning on fiber momentum: We’ve ‘never seen anything like this’

Joe Jensen, Corning’s Director of FTTH Market Development for the Americas, told Fierce the current state of the broadband market is unlike anything he’s seen over the past two decades, with operator enthusiasm high and money pouring in from all sides. But he noted telecoms still face a number of challenges, among these figuring out how to get a cut of all the new funding and finding the labor force to get their projects done.

Advances in RF front-ends made 5G phones possible: Lam

A decade ago, a fundamental change began in the radio frequency (RF) designs of cellular devices that would pave the way for the current sophistication of the RF front-end — the section of a smartphone between the modem and the antenna. The world was going through a momentous transition from multiple, fractured 3G global cellular technologies to a unified 4G wireless standard that would become known as Long-Term Evolution, or LTE. It was the first step in a long journey of improving cellular communication to make optimal use of radio spectrum.

Tuesday, August 03, 2021

Marvell's Innovium Ingestion to Burn Broadcom

Marvell’s $1.1 billion acquisition of switch ASIC vendor Innovium this week fills a gap in the chipmaker’s lineup and positions it to compete directly with networking giant Broadcom, said Guy Azrad, SVP & GM of Marvell’s networking switch business unit.

Rakuten Acquires Altiostar to Boost Open RAN Efforts

Japan’s Rakuten Group scooped up U.S.-based open radio access (RAN) network equipment provider Altiostar for more than $1 billion. The move expands on an already established financial partnership between the two companies and bolsters Rakuten’s internal work toward creating an open RAN ecosystem.

Don't subvert wireless retail store metrics — Greenblatt

After a difficult pandemic year, wireless customers appear more than ready and willing to return to stores. Clearly, 2021 has picked up where 2019 left off, with many consumers exhibiting a preference for hands-on, in-store sales experiences. The desire to touch and closely evaluate devices in person remains un-phased as consumers flock to stores to purchase new phones and related devices. In-person contact has remained a steadfast driver of customer satisfaction and will continue to be vital.

SBA: Dish, Verizon very busy in Q2

The second quarter marked SBA Communications’ highest quarterly level of operational leasing activity, where it put new revenue under contract, in the U.S. since 2014 – and executives said Verizon and Dish Network were very busy.

Google to power new Pixel phones with own chip

Google will use a custom chip designed in house to power the next generation flagship Pixel smartphones, following in the footsteps of Apple and Samsung to rid themselves of the perceived limitations of off-the-shelf offerings.

Monday, August 02, 2021

Traceable Rolls Out Free API Security

Traceable rolled out a free version of its API security software just a year after former AppDynamic CEO Jyoti Bansal launched the company with $20 million in funding and an enterprise application security platform. Alongside the free version, the startup also announced self-deployment that takes less than 10 minutes across all tiers: free, teams, and enterprise Traceable AI.

Alkira Amps AWS in Multi-Cloud Domination Bid

Alkira announced an expanded relationship with Amazon Web Services (AWS) in a bid to simplify multi-cloud deployments. As part of the announcement, the startup also joined Amazon’s ISV Accelerate and Global Startup programs.

Red Hat and Nutanix team on hybrid cloud offering

Red Hat and Nutanix are partnering to help their customers manage and scale their hybrid cloud. Specifically, Red Hat’s OpenShift is the preferred platform for Kubernetes on Nutanix’s Cloud Platform and Nutanix’s Cloud Platform is the preferred choice for hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) on Red Hat’s Enterprise Linux and Red Hat’s OpenShift.

Canadian 5G auction raises competition questions, again

Canada has announced the results of its latest 5G auction, raising C$8.9 billion (US$7.1 billion) from the sale of spectrum in the 3.5 GHz band. But while the country’s innovation minister declared the result to be a success from the point of view of market competition, it’s pretty clear who the big winners really are.

Sunday, August 01, 2021

McAfee Builds Its Own ZTNA for SASE Boost

McAfee expanded its secure access service edge (SASE) platform with homegrown zero-trust network access (ZTNA) technology that, in addition to securing access to private applications from any location or device, also integrates with its data loss prevention (DLP) capabilities.

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