Saturday, November 06, 2021

Headcount: Firings, Hirings, and Retirings — October 2021

Here are some of the latest executive hirings, promotions, and staff changes that happened in October. 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, November 05, 2021

What do FAA C-band delays mean for AT&T, Verizon?

AT&T and Verizon this week agreed to delay their respective C-band spectrum rollouts by one month after the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued safety concerns – a situation that has somewhat surprised analysts and raised the question of impact for carriers.
           

Qualcomm, NEC team up on open vRAN units

Qualcomm’s move on the network infrastructure side has expanded to include a strategic partnership with Japan’s NEC. The pair are collaborating to build a 5G open virtualized distributed unit (DU), which will use the chipset maker’s X100 5G RAN Accelerator Card.
           

Non-profit aims to close digital divide with free apartment WiFi

The national non-profit EducationSuperHighway began a new mission to close the digital divide. The group says that closing the digital divide is more than just ensuring that every home has access to a provider. It says although 28.2 million households in the United States do not have high-speed broadband, 18 million of those households have access to the internet but simply can't afford to connect. This accounts for two-thirds of the digital divide.
           

Thursday, November 04, 2021

C-band delay: Dish to the rescue?

Considering that AT&T and Verizon agreed to delay their C-band deployments by one month due to Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) concerns, would Dish Network consider leasing some of its boatload of spectrum for a spell?
           

Spectrum saving startup targets private wireless

Spectrum is the resource carriers spend billions to acquire and billions more to deploy, so clearly there is value in using it efficiently. Several companies have patented technologies to increase spectral efficiency, and one of them recently raised a $20 million Series B round with the goal of hiring new talent to develop its private wireless business.
           

BT's overall revenue down, Openreach up in fiscal first half

Amid takeover speculation, U.K. telco BT reported a 3% decline in revenue to 10.3 billion British pounds ($14 billion) for the first half of its fiscal year, which ended on Sept. 30, but said its BT Openreach fiber broadband unit posted a 5% increase in revenue to about 2.7 billion pounds ($3.6 billion.)
           

Wednesday, November 03, 2021

Cyber Czar Calls for Shared Defense Against Ransomware

The United States’ first National Cyber Director Chris Inglis and National Security Agency Cybersecurity Director Rob Joyce encouraged the private sector to work with the government to fight ransomware and share cyber-incident insights at AT&T’s Security Conference this week. 
           

Fortinet Rings In Q3 With Full-Stack Security Push

In celebration of another strong quarter, Fortinet today celebrated another strong quarter by announcing it has unified its zero trust, endpoint, and network security products in a bid to help the growing number of enterprises struggling with how to secure hybrid and remote workers.
           

IBM Kompletes Kyndryl Spinoff

Kyndryl is officially a standalone company, complete with a shiny new ticker — KD — on the New York Stock Exchange. The announcement marks the completion of IBM’s plan to spin off its managed infrastructure business under the Kyndryl name.
           

Game on: Wireless versus wireline competition is real — Moore

In December 2018, T-Mobile posted a video to YouTube, “The Carriers Who (Almost) Stole Wireless.” This was a telecom parody of “The Grinch Who Stole Christmas,” with the villains being three Grinch-like creatures who are greedy, cartoonish brutes who charge excessive taxes and fees. Of course, CEO John Legere swoops in on a flying sleigh, and his team rescues the residents of “Wirelessville,” so the story went.
           

Juniper rolls out AI-driven support across the Junos portfolio

This week Juniper Networks announced Juniper Support Insights, which is an AI-driven support service across the entire Junos portfolio. Juniper jumped into AI-based networking when it acquired Mist Systems in 2019. At that time, Mist was used primarily as a Wi-Fi troubleshooting tool. The focus of AI to improve Wi-Fi made sense given that is the single, most difficult area of networking to problem-solve as there are so many variables to consider. In fact, last year I ran a Wi-Fi troubleshooting survey and found that many network engineers spend about one-quarter of their time doing nothing but troubleshooting Wi-Fi. So, Mist came to market by attacking the biggest problems facing network professionals.
           

T-Mobile posts 673K net adds in Q3

T-Mobile reported 673,000 postpaid phone net additions for the third quarter, in line or slightly higher than analysts forecast, with growth in its Magenta brand said to be the strongest in the company’s history.
           

Tuesday, November 02, 2021

T-Mobile CEO Defends Unceasing 2-Year 5G Lead

T-Mobile US’ 5G footprint continues to expand, reaching further into pockets of the country that position the operator for growth in new markets and business segments. Executives continue to press on opportunities in fixed wireless access, enterprises, and communities living in less populated areas of the country.
           

The Perimeter Isn't Dead (Yet) and SASE Won't Kill It

Hybrid networking and security models, like secure access service edge (SASE), aren’t making networking teams’ lives easier, Tag Cyber CEO Ed Amoroso said during a Netskope panel discussion this week. Instead, he argued, IT teams are now forced to pull double duty to implement these new architectures, while also maintaining traditional network and security perimeters.
           

Taking stock of number portability

Heavy Reading survey data indicates that number portability has been deployed at scale and is meeting or exceeding performance expectations, but business model complexity is having an impact within Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia-Pacific.
           

FAA issues warning on potential safety risks from 5G C-band

The Federal Aviation Administration on Tuesday upped the ante in what has been an ongoing scuffle between communications regulators and the wireless industry with aviation stakeholders – as the agency issued a warning over potential interference to airplane safety systems from upcoming 5G deployments in C-band frequencies.    
           

Monday, November 01, 2021

Cisco Serves SD-WAN a Multi-Cloud, Multi-Tenant Boost

Cisco unleashed a bevy of new features in its latest SD-WAN release today, including enhanced cloud integrations, improved multi-tenancy, and an updated management console. According to Raj Gulani, senior director of product management for enterprise cloud and SD-WAN at Cisco, the release comes as SD-WAN customers ask more than ever from their WANs.
           

Juniper Drives AIOps Into Junos, Debutes WiFi 6E APs

Juniper’s Junos network operating system (NOS) is the latest in its extensive portfolio to get the artificial intelligence operations (AIOps) treatment. Juniper Support Insights promises to improve network visibility and provide actionable insights into the state of the network.
           

IBM Claims ReaQta Buy Completes XDR Stack

IBM today said it plans to acquire ReaQta, which rounds out its endpoint detection and response capabilities and will allow it to provide a full-stack extended detection and response (XDR) platform. And it simultaneously rolled out a new XDR software brand.
           

FCC opens filing window for Huawei rip and replace funds

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has opened the $1.9 billion Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program filing window. The program, colloquially known as the “Huawei Rip & Replace” program, will reimburse service providers for the cost of replacing equipment and services that pose a national security threat.
           

Green base stations: Get your priorities straight — Madden

As we move from 4G to 5G to 6G, there’s a lot of talk about making “green” base stations that consume less power. Researchers are starting to talk about setting goals for 6G to consume 10-100X lower power than 5G. I agree, there’s no reason to be wasteful, and we should minimize the power consumed in our mobile networks. But this article is about the bigger picture. Let’s look a little more closely at what the 5G or 6G network is doing.
           

How ZTE Can Enable the Industry to Realize Green, Low Carbon

As the mobile industry prepares to tackle the challenge of reaching net-zero carbon emissions, new technologies and innovations powered by 5G are making it easier than ever. Reducing emissions through the incorporation of artificial intelligence, robots, advanced cooling, and supply chain optimization can reduce carbon use. Transforming a commercial or network environment into a green facility can be a difficult task for operators that have little experience in the use of emerging 5G technologies. Finding an experienced partner is the best way to reach low carbon status without wasting resources or time. With more than 300,000 green and intelligent sites globally, ZTE has comprehensive experience and knowledge in how to make commercial sites more efficient through the implementation of advanced 5G end-to-end solutions powered by innovative technology. “We are providing green 5G network equipment and solutions and also, green cloud solutions. We understand nowadays that ZTE can not only provide network equipment but also IT infrastructure. Together we call this digital infrastructure,” said Jason Tu, Principal Scientist at ZTE. The need for digital infrastructure to help enterprises from all industries reduce carbon emissions and become green companies has never been more evident.Key Takeaways from the Mobile Net Zero State of the Industry on Climate Action Report In 2019, the GSMA Board set a goal to transform the mobile industry to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. This advisory board helps businesses throughout the mobile industry, including cell phone makers and equipment providers, software companies, and internet providers, guiding how operations should work in the coming years for the greater good of the whole industry. Of the three steps identified by the GSMA Board to help transform the industry to a net-zero one, the ICT Sector pathway is the most relevant to the mobile industry. Globally, the ICT sector is estimated to produce around 700 Mt of CO2 annually. This represents over 1% of emissions and around four percent of electricity use worldwide. The greatest significance of mobile networks for energy saving globally is to help other industries achieve energy saving. Research shows the industry can enable carbon reductions in other sectors that are equivalent to approximately 4% of global emissions.How do Energy Savings by Mobile Networks Translate to Energy Savings for Other Industries? There are many ways the mobile network operator can save energy by adapting 5G technologies in the manufacturing sector and distribution channels, including:
           

Network Automation Drives Significant Benefits to Operators

Network automation will allow for greater agility in network services, increased operational efficiency and improved network availability. However due to inconsistent data sources and differing processes among operators it is difficult to put exact numbers on the possible end-to-end benefits. At Analysys Mason, we interviewed operators on their network automation strategies and results, collecting more than 60 data points. These insights were analysed and used to model the potential benefits for a large regional operator. This blog is the first of three that we are publishing on the topic of automation, which can be read in conjunction with the webinar and published report where the research and ideas mentioned are explored in greater detail.Operators can expect up to a 65% cost avoidance after implementing automation across all operations categories. Our model estimates that a large, regional operator can achieve a total cost avoidance of up to a 65% at the domain controller layer across the service fulfilment, network lifecycle management and network and service assurance processes.
           

Sunday, October 31, 2021

SKT’s CEO Announces Vision to Become AI & Digital Service Company

SK Telecom today announced that CEO Ryu Young-sang held a town hall meeting to present the company’s new vision to shape into an “AI & Digital Infrastructure Service Company” that creates new value through customer-oriented technologies and services, and fulfills its social responsibility.
           

Knative Hits Maturity Milestone

The Knative Project is set to hit a significant 1.0 milestone this week with a focus on democratizing serverless computing and initiating wider adoption of the Kubernetes-based platform. The move comes more than 3 years after the product was initially unveiled and moves to reduce concerns over the project’s future.
           

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