VMware Exec: Open RAN ‘Trend Is Irreversible’

VMware, despite all the drama involving protectionism, geopolitics, security, and international trade surrounding the O-RAN Alliance of late, remains firmly in its camp and unwavering in supporting the group’s ultimate goal. 

Pica8 Packs Network Control, Switch for 'Software Cisco' Goal

Pica8 recently announced a new pack combining its AmpCon network controller and PicOS software switches, and a $20 million Series C funding round. The plucky vendor explained the moved shifted it one step further to its goal of being the network industry’s “software Cisco.”

DT, Ericsson declare 5G slicing success in video trial

Deutsche Telekom (DT) and Ericsson said they've demonstrated the use of 5G end-to-end network slicing in a customer-centric service delivery model for video streaming, where a customer can control and adapt slice performance based on demand. 

Microsoft says transport latency can nullify benefits of 5G

Microsoft wants to be the global wide area network (WAN) for 5G.

Adtran misses the mark in Q3 due to supply chain constraints

Adtran felt the sting of supply chain issues in Q3, taking a $9 million hit from constraint-related expenses and failing to meet previously set guidance targets.

AT&T, Verizon face risks as broadband, mobile collide: Analysts

Convergence between wireless and wireline finally appears to be within reach, begging the question of whether cable companies or fiber-forward telcos like AT&T and Verizon will come out on top. A new analysis from MoffetNathanson tackled the topic, concluding the latter could be at a competitive disadvantage.

3.45 GHz auction hits make-or-break stage

Talk about a white-knuckle ride. The 3.45 GHz auction threw a lot of folks in a tizzy after Thursday’s bidding rounds. Will the auction collapse?

GlobalData's Emir Halilovic: How PON, SD-WAN have changed the enterprise market

GlobalData Principal Analyst Emir Halilovic discusses the changes in enterprise PON connectivity that have been unlocked by SD-WAN.

CableLabs' Kyrio unit sets sights on network convergence

Kyrio's new software-powered Adaptive Route Control (ARC) system enables fixed and mobile operators to route customer traffic to the best available network on an application-by-application basis.

Net neutrality moaning shows telcos are stuck in the past

Internet companies have done operators a massive favor by serving up the apps that consumers demand, but operators still think the app developers should pay.

Eurobites: Proximus sprouts more fiber around Brussels

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Orange opens two more digital centers in Africa; Telia TV hosts HBO Max; smart-home wars.

Sweden's Sivers buys 5G mmWave startup MixComm for $135M

Sivers CEO Anders Storm proclaims that 'most of the world is going to start rolling out' mmWave 5G.

Daily Roundup: Nokia Lugs Industrial OT to All-In-One Enterprise Edge Kit

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SD-WAN revenue to hit $5.5 billion in 2025, Omdia reports

SD-WAN product revenues reached $844 million in Q2, an increase of more than 30% year-over-year. This shows, overall, that the pandemic hasn't negatively impacted the SD-WAN market, says Omdia's Dominika Koncewicz.

Vecima leaps into cable's 'GAP'

The supplier said the Entra EN9000, a node based on SCTE standards for the Generic Access Platform (GAP), will be available for lab tests in the first half of 2022. Expect Charter to be among the first in line.

WiCipedia: The 'broken rungs' of women's careers

This week in our WiC roundup: Women get short shrift when it comes to promotions; workplace harassment is as pervasive as ever; telecom steps into the 21st century; and more.

Gravwell Guns for Splunk With Scalable Data Fusion

Gravwell, an enterprise data fusion startup, recently closed a $3 million seed funding round as it aims to compete with Splunk for market leadership.

Supply-chain woes cost Adtran $9M, but supplier reports 'record demand' for Q3

'Although our revenue growth and profitability in the near-term are impacted by the supply chain issues, our long-term outlook continues to strengthen,' says Adtran CEO Tom Stanton.

FCC vacancies threaten to derail US broadband plans

Without a permanent chair or adequate staff, and at risk of losing its Democratic majority, the FCC will fail to make meaningful progress on crucial broadband programs, a former agency official warns.

Debt-slashing Telefónica flogs Salvadoran business

Telefónica finally manages to offload its El Salvadoran mobile business, after a scotched 2019 deal, but gets less than half last time's sale price.

Omdia's Julie Kunstler on what's going on with PON

Julie Kunstler discusses developments in passive optical networks and why operators are turning to PON to reduce 5G small cell transport costs, and to support their own 'green' initiatives.

Comcast could spark FDX Amplifier trials in 2022, deployments in 2023

The rise of this new class of product will put Comcast in position to deploy upstream-boosting Full Duplex DOCSIS technology to a large portion of its HFC network.

Europe at loggerheads over wholesale roaming charges

Parliamentary committee wants lower caps than ones proposed by the European Council and European Commission.

Hurricane Ida prompts AT&T to swap copper for fiber in Louisiana

AT&T is preparing to upgrade customers in three Louisiana towns to GPON fiber, after a recent hurricane wreaked havoc on its copper assets.

U.S. government funding sources for broadband

Thanks in part to Covid, there’s been a massive influx of funding for broadband deployments. But with so many initiatives in play, it’s become hard to keep track of the myriad funding sources.

Comcast acquires EIS contract holder Defined Technologies

Comcast Business is set to make a bigger play for federal government contracts with the news that its Comcast Government Services unit acquired Defined Technologies, LLC, a Tysons, Virginia company that is among a small handful of firms possessing a General Services Administration (GSA) Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions (EIS) contract.

STL creates product line to converge wired, wireless networks

STL has created a product line — Accellus — in recognition of the convergence of wired and wireless technology in telecommunications networks.

Comcast claims first with end-to-end full duplex DOCSIS 4.0 link

Comcast staked a claim as the first in the world to deliver an end-to-end full duplex (FDX) DOCSIS 4.0 connection from its network to a customer gateway, building on earlier trials of individual network components.

India's Vodafone Idea may get funds from backers – report

Vodafone Group and Aditya Birla Group may infuse $400 million in Vodafone Idea to support the company clearing off dues and growth, it's been reported.

Omdia's Jaimie Lenderman on the changing broadband landscape

Jaimie Lenderman discusses the growth of altnets, the entrance of new vendors, the evolution of PON and why the industry is poised for 'exponential' growth.

Apple pares iPhone 13 target by 10M, amid chip dip

Tim Cook's company slashes iPhone 13 targets due to chip shortages, showing not even Cupertino is immune from the chip dip.

Microsoft starts selling transport, routing services to 5G operators

Microsoft said it has built a 'well-managed, reliable, and performant' transport and routing network for its Azure cloud computing service. Now it's selling that network to 5G operators.

Fiber 'love' bears some fruit for KPN

The Dutch incumbent has seen a fall in maintenance costs and improvement in customer spending in areas where fiber has been deployed.

Stratosphere emerging as the next big Internet battleground

SmartSky, Aeronet, Gogo and HAPSMobile are just some of the companies that are hoping to eke profits from stratospheric communications. But others, like Loon and Qualcomm, have moved on.

Andromeda auction bidding slows while concerns grow

'Prices have increased slower than we projected,' wrote the financial analysts at Credit Suisse. Bidding so far is nowhere near the auction's reserve price.

Eurobites: Orange opens 5G lab in Antwerp

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Rootmetrics finds EE is still ahead of the 5G pack; how 5G can help anticipate landslides; blockchain for tower management.

Is Korean profit bump sign of 5G turning the corner?

South Korean telcos are about to enjoy a Q3 earnings spike thanks to 5G, analysts have forecast.

Omdia's Dario Talmesio: Funding the fiber frenzy

Omdia's Dario Talmesio talks about how fiber infrastructure is attracting more investors these days, and why they see value in something other than retail telecoms services.

TSMC Dismisses Intel, Powers Through Q3

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) CEO C.C. Wei isn’t worried about Intel’s recently announced product roadmap in the least.

BT takes Eagle-i approach to cybersecurity

UK telco launches new cybersecurity platform based on recent investment in Safe Security.

Nokia Lugs Industrial OT to All-In-One Enterprise Edge Kit

Nokia’s MX Industrial Edge server, a new all-in-one server designed for industrial applications in asset-heavy industries, reached 100 Gb/s in a recent test, according to the Finnish vendor.

Australia close to acquiring Digicel Pacific – report

Australian government and Telstra reportedly on brink of deal with debt-laden Digicel Group; widely seen as political manoeuvre to stymie China's influence in the region.

Comcast forges 'network to modem' DOCSIS 4.0 connection

Cable op claims another '10G' milestone with Full Duplex DOCSIS (FDX) live lab trial that linked its virtual cable modem termination system to DOCSIS cable modems configured to operate in the FDX spectrum band.

Adtran's Ronan Kelly: PON's potential paves way for progress

Ronan Kelly, Adtran's CTO for its EMEA & APAC regions, discusses the future of GPON as so many other PON variants are battling for the hearts, minds and wallets of network operators around the world.

Canada’s Shaw reveals plan to fend off fiber competition

Canadian operator Shaw Communications laid out its strategy to fend off competition from fiber overbuilders in the country, charting a course to move from a mid-split architecture to frequency division duplex (FDD) DOCSIS 4.0 by 2030.

Virgin Media O2 closes in on multi-gig goal with 2.2 Gbps trial

Virgin Media O2 is on course to double the broadband speeds available on its existing cable network, following a pair of real-world trials which delivered 2.2 Gbps.

Nokia’s Broadband Zero push targets sustainability, inclusivity

Nokia is throwing its weight behind an initiative it calls Broadband Zero, aiming to help connect as many people as possible with a minimal impact on the environment.

Huawei opens four more enterprise vertical units

Huawei is drilling down further into enterprise with the formation of four new business teams to target emerging segments.

BT aims to keep Huawei for fiber until early 2030s

The UK telecom incumbent says it has been talking with the government about earning the full return on its investment in Huawei products.

Omdia's Michael Philpott on why 5G flops without fiber

Research Director Michael Philpott explains why fiber is a critical component to the success of 5G networks, and why every region needs access to gigabit speeds.

MixComm CEO talks advancements in beamforming and mmWave for 5G

MixComm's CEO explains the company's approach to beamforming and mmWave, and how partnerships are key to furthering updates to those 5G technologies.

BT's Rob Shuter: Enterprises want solutions, not just connectivity

Customers are looking to combine telco and tech elements into solutions, coupled AI, edge computing and IoT, Shuter said.

BT's Howard Watson: Eyeing the 'prize' of a 5G converged core

Howard Watson explains how BT plans to phase out Huawei equipment, and why it's banking on the benefits of a 5G converged core.

Ericsson suggests '6G Basic' standards could be released in 2027

On its website, Ericsson published a graphic that it said was 'the 3GPP's 5G evolution time plan.' It shows the global standards group potentially releasing '6G Basic' in 2027.

Labor shortages spread into wireless industry's retail biz

Some companies are offering generous sign-up bonuses. Others are cutting store hours. Whatever the result, it's clear that workforce shortages are beginning to affect the retail sector of the wireless industry.

Federated hopes spectrum leasing catches hold

With its new Spectrum Exchange, Federated hopes to provide spectrum licenses on-demand, just as Google scales its cloud computing services up and down based on customer demand.

DOCSIS 4.0 puzzle starting to come together

Suppliers are making rapid process with network and CPE elements that will support the Extended Spectrum DOCSIS flavor of DOCSIS 4.0, Cox's Jeff Finkelstein says.

Verizon's Visible confirms hack

'Our investigation indicates that threat actors were able to access username/passwords from outside sources, and exploit that information to login to Visible accounts,' the company reported.

Eurobites: Orange gets greener by using refurbished Nokia gear

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Nokia ships application containers; Arcep vindicated in French 5G spectrum rumpus; Vodafone comes up short on advertising standards.

Liberty Global reportedly eyeing Belgian tower sale

Reports suggest that the 3,000 towers used by Telenet could be flogged off for up to €600m.

Analyst warns IT professionals to do due diligence when purchasing AIOps

While 64% of companies say they are using AIOps, ZK Research's Zeus Kerravala says many AIOps services are missing a key component – artificial intelligence.

Altice borrows Verizon’s playbook with flexible internet options

Altice USA ditched contracts and bundles, following rival Verizon in rolling out a more flexible way for customers to buy broadband, mobile and TV service from its Optimum and Suddenlink brands.

Satellite player Telesat taps Ciena for terrestrial backhaul

Canadian satellite broadband company Telesat turned to Ciena for help designing and equipping its terrestrial backhaul network, as it works toward the launch of global service under its Lightspeed brand in early 2024.

Google targets telcos with new distributed cloud infrastructure

Google unveiled a new suite of Distributed Cloud solutions designed to extend its infrastructure across a variety of locations, targeting telcos with an edge offering capable of running 5G network functions as well as enterprise applications closer to users.

Eurobites: Vodacom puts M-Pesa on steroids with 'super app'

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Hiber hooks up with Inmarsat; Forsway develops satellite-assisted 5G; AT&T taps Ericsson for 5G network expansion.

100% green subsea cable set to link Norway and Canada

As subsea cable-laying hits a frenzied pitch, a renewables-fueled link from Norway to Canada pitches the naturally cool Nordic data centers instead.

Nokia boasts of mmWave breakthrough for 5G FWA

Finnish vendor unveils 360 High Gain technology that it says overcomes the propagation challenges of mmWave to enable FWA.

India's BSNL records a 4G milestone

India's state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) is finally moving closer to bring 4G services to its subscribers.

Purdue University group signs up for Celona's private 5G network

Although it currently spans just six access points, the network in Purdue Research Foundation's Convergence Center could spark a much wider deployment of 5G private wireless networking.

Remote MACPHY gaining steam with cable ops, CommScope says

Recent deployment deal with Alaska's GCI is indicative of a trend that is seeing cable operators shift more attention to remote MACPHY in their distributed access architecture (DAA) rollouts, CommScope's Tom Cloonan says.

Fresh funding will fuel some M&A, Plume CEO says

Armed with a $300 million from an 'F' round led by Japan's SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Plume intends to target companies that can broaden the smart home software specialist's cloud, data and AI capabilities, Plume CEO Fahri Diner says.

China leading the pack in quantum communications

After 5G, AI and space exploration, China has elbowed its way to the front of the pack in another key technology – quantum communications.

Rakuten to legacy operators: Time to take the cloud plunge

Japanese cloud networking pioneer Rakuten says it's time traditional telcos took the plunge into virtualization.

Google wants to take your mobile network off your hands, telcos

The number-three hyperscaler is ramping up its range of telecom offerings in its public cloud slugfest with AWS and Microsoft Azure.

Cable network set to become 'predictive and more proactive,' Cox CTO says

Going well beyond core speeds and feeds, the expanded use of artificial intelligence and machine learning will help cable operators stay a step ahead of anomalies and fix them before customers notice, says Cox's Kevin Hart.

Canadians more hostile to Huawei – survey

Nanos Research finds 76% of Canadians want the Chinese supplier banned from 5G networks; prime minister Trudeau due to make a decision within the 'coming weeks.'

Comcast, Cox are bringing DOCSIS 4.0 to life in their labs

Comcast and Cox Communications are chugging along down the road toward DOCSIS 4.0, aiming to take work currently being done in the lab out into the wild in the near future.

Harmonic links to Google Cloud Marketplace, debuts MAC Anywhere

Harmonic unveiled a pair of updates to its CableOS virtual converged cable access platform (CCAP), touting a new integration with Google Cloud Marketplace and a software-based MAC Anywhere solution for distributed access architecture (DAA) deployments.

NEC to build US-Europe subsea cable for Facebook

As Facebook and Alphabet up their cable-laying game, NEC bags a contract to build a half petabit per second cable between the US and Europe.

CSG deals for DGIT Systems

CSG says the deal will enable it to tie in third-party services that can take advantage of emerging 5G network slicing capabilities and help CSG's partners extend to markets such as connected healthcare and manufacturing.

Eurobites: Telefónica chips in with 5G for Spanish golf coverage

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: EU looks into Teams complaint; more connectivity equals fewer trucks; Finland wants to watch Finnish telly.

DZS pact with Plume to extend its cloud to the home network

DZS says the Plume deal paves a path to more recurring revenue and establishes a way for it to manage and orchestrate the core, access and in-home networks, and provide partners with a new option for premium whole-home services.

TIM launches satellite service for the underserved

New service is based on the Eutelsat Konnect satellite, but solving the digital divide remains a challenge.

Comcast 'making a lot of good progress' with DOCSIS 4.0

Integration is a big near-term focus, but Comcast's virtual CMTS now 'speaks' DOCSIS 4.0, and the MSO is also pushing ahead with deployments of a distributed access architecture, says Comcast's Rob Howald.

Boeing satellite broadband nears FCC approval

Boeing's long-stalled proposal with the FCC to get into satellite broadband appears set to move ahead – but is it too late?

Charter's mobile chief credits convergence for price cuts

Network convergence 'is a significant part of our strategy,' Charter's chief mobile officer, Danny Bowman, explained. 'That's what it's all about.'

Is Verizon trying to kill the Andromeda auction?

Bidding in the FCC's ongoing auction of midband spectrum between 3.45GHz and 3.55GHz dropped unexpectedly during round ten. Some believe it might be a major bidder attempting to spark a mass exit from the event.

Harmonic: Let's put the MAC here, there... anywhere

Vendor says its 'MAC Anywhere' play fits with CableLabs' new Flexible MAC Architecture (FMA), and also opens the door to potential integrations with third-party cable network hardware suppliers.