Huawei Signs with the Washington Redskins

The Washington Redskins have signed Huawei Enterprise USA as a multi-year team sponsor and “Official Technology Partner.” The two organizations will jointly participate in marketing and also explore additional technology solutions to enhance the game day experience for Redskins fans. This represents the first major sports sponsorship for Huawei in the U.S.

As part of the deal, Huawei Enterprise will be providing a Wi-Fi network for the Suite Level at the 85,000-seater FedExField, one of the largest stadiums in the National Football League.

The marketing opportunities for Huawei Enterprise includes online, broadcast and in-stadium branding, such as LED signage, promotion on Redskins social media channels, radio spots and in-show features on Redskins television shows.

Huawei's experience in providing networking and infrastructure solutions to major sports franchises and venues includes Germany’s Signal Iduna Park, home of soccer team Borussia Dortmund, and the Amersterdam ArenA, where the Dutch soccer team Ajax plays.

“We are proud to welcome Huawei as a sponsor and technology partner of the Washington Redskins,” said Mitch Gershman, CMO for the Washington Redskins. “Huawei is a global brand and an ideal technology partner with leadership positions in networking, broadband, telecom and consumer devices.”  Gershman added, “Making Wi-Fi available in FedExField is our latest way to enhance the Redskins fan’s experience. Huawei is the ideal technology partner, because Huawei has wired some the world’s largest stadiums and works with many of the world’s biggest telecom carriers.”

http://www.huaweienterpriseusa.com/

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RagingWire to Double its Ashburn Data Center Campus

RagingWire Data Centers will begin construction on a 140,000 sq. ft. data center facility with 14MW of highly available power as part of its Ashburn, Virginia campus.

The addition is a two-story building that nearly doubles the size of RagingWire’s Ashburn, Virginia campus to 290,000 sq. ft..

RagingWire opened its first data center in Ashburn, Virginia in July 2012, a 150,000 sq. ft. facility called VA1, and has purchased 78 acres of land in Ashburn with designs to build upwards of 2 million sq. ft. of data center space. VA2 will be fully integrated with VA1 and networked with RagingWire’s 680,000 sq. ft. data center campus in Sacramento, California, the largest commercial multi-tenant data center in the state.

RagingWire is an NTT Communications group company.

http://www.ragingwire.com/news/ragingwire-expands-the-virginia-data-center-with-new-va2-facility

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Ericsson Sees Q3 Sales Growth from LTE in Asia

Ericsson reported Q3 2014 sales of SEK 57.6 billion (US$7.94 billion), a growth of 9% YoY and 5% QoQ. Sales for comparable units, adjusted for currency, grew by 3% YoY and 2% QoQ.

The company said sales growth was mainly driven by the Middle East, China, India and Russia, but was partly offset by lower sales in North America.

Some highlights:

• Gross margin increased YoY to 35.2% (32.0%), driven by improved business mix, higher IPR revenues and lower restructuring charges
• Ericsson delivered on 4G/LTE contracts in Mainland China and Taiwan and saw improving sales in Japan. 
• The investment climate in India continues to improve. 
• Sales in parts of Europe, mainly UK and Germany, showed growth year-over-year while the development in southern Europe continued to be weak.
• Sales in North America continued to be driven by operator investments in capacity and quality enhancements. However, business activity slowed down during the quarter as operators currently focus on cash flow optimization.
• The momentum for Professional Services continued and generated organic growth in the quarter driven by managed services sales and systems integration. 
• During Q3, Ericsson signed 14 new contracts for its SSR 8000 multi-application IP router, of which 6 were for fixed networks.  This brings the number of SSR contracts to 134 since the platform launched in December 2011.
• Global Services operating margin declined slightly YoY negatively impacted by revaluation of hedge contracts.

http://www.ericsson.com/news/1865458

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Equinix Activates AWS Direct Connect from German Data Centers

Equinix began offering Amazon Web Services(AWS) Direct Connect cloud service from its International Business Exchange (IBX) data centers in Germany.

Equinix operates data centers in Düsseldorf, Frankfurt and Munich, for a total of 51,000+ square meters (548,760+ square feet) of colocation space in country.

The Equinix Frankfurt campus includes five Equinix IBX data centers, which are linked via Metro Connect fiber to enable the AWS Direct Connect service from any one of these five facilities. The Equinix Frankfurt campus is home to more than 400 national and international network operators, including one of the highest concentrations of networks servicing Eastern European countries.

Equinix said that by using AWS Direct Connect within its Frankfurt data center (FR5), from the Equinix data centers in Frankfurt, Munich and Dusseldorf via Metro Connect or from other data centers in Germany or abroad via third-party carriers, customers can have a consistent, dedicated network connection to the cloud for higher performance at a lower cost.

“Our goal at Equinix is to help our enterprise customers realize the full benefits of the cloud – without worrying about application latency or cost issues. By providing access to AWS via the Direct Connect service, we are empowering our mutual customers to achieve improved performance of cloud-based applications,” stated Eric Schwartz, president, EMEA, Equinix.

http://www.equinix.com/company/news-and-events/press-releases/amazon-web-services-direct-connect-service-now-available-in-germany-at-equinix-data-centers/

http://www.equinix.com/locations/germany-colocation/germany-data-centers

Amazon Web Services launched its new AWS EU (Frankfurt) region, its 11th technology infrastructure region globally for AWS and the second region in the European Union (EU).  AWS also operates in Ireland.

AWS said all its data centers are designed, built, and regularly audited to meet rigorous compliance standards, including ISO 27001, SOC 1 (Formerly SAS 70), PCI DSS Level 1, and many more, providing high levels of security for all AWS customers. The new AWS EU (Frankfurt) region consists of two separate Availability Zones at launch. Availability Zones refer to data centers in separate, distinct locations within a single region that are engineered to be operationally independent of other Availability Zones, with independent power, cooling, and physical security, and are connected via a low latency network.

The AWS EU region in Frankfurt operates on carbon neutral electricity.  It also conforms with EU data protection laws, ensuring that data remains within Germany.

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Frontier Completes $2B Acquisition of AT&T's Wireline Net in CT

Frontier Communications completed its previously announced $2 billion acquisition of AT&T’s wireline business, statewide fiber network, and U-verse operations in Connecticut.

 As part of the acquisition, Frontier also acquired AT&T’s DISH satellite TV customers in Connecticut.

 “Frontier is excited to offer our products and services to customers in our home state,” said Maggie Wilderotter, Frontier’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. “We look forward to bringing our local engagement management model to Connecticut and empowering all Frontier employees to provide high-quality service to their friends and neighbors and to become active contributors to their communities.”

The deal was first announced last December.

http://www.att.com
http://investor.frontier.com/releases.cfm

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IBM to Open SoftLayer Cloud Center in Paris

IBM is preparing to open a new SoftLayer cloud center in Paris, France, before the end of this year. IBM Cloud will also provide cloud infrastructure services for customers and companies in France that require in-country data residency.

SoftLayer cloud centers are already operational in London and Amsterdam. The new facility in Paris is part of a new 15 cloud center expansion and a $1.2 billion investment by IBM Cloud to grow its cloud presence around the world. It has capacity for thousands of physical servers and offers the full range of SoftLayer cloud infrastructure services, including bare metal servers, virtual servers, storage, and networking. It seamlessly integrates via the company’s leading private network with all SoftLayer cloud centers and network PoPs around the world. With services deployed on demand and full remote access and control, customers can create their ideal public, private, or hybrid cloud environments.

“We’re addressing clients’ and countries’ growing desire for data sovereignty head on,” said Lance Crosby, CEO of SoftLayer. “With each new cloud center we’re bringing our complete cloud services portfolio to the doorsteps of local customers. The Paris cloud center allows us to support workloads and applications from French customers who want their data to stay in the country and secure in the cloud, and provides our global clients with an opportunity to get even closer to their end user customers in the region.”

http://www.softlayer.com/info/paris-hosting

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T-Mobile Netherlands Picks Mavenir for IMS Core

T-Mobile Netherlands has selected Mavenir Systems' IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem) core networking solution.

“Mavenir’s solution simplifies IMS network deployments by providing a complete end to end suite of IMS applications and functions on a single, common platform. We provide the flexibility and innovation to accelerate time to market and lower total cost of ownership by minimizing network impacts, reducing complexity and harmonizing the architecture,” said Pardeep Kohli, President and CEO of Mavenir Systems.

http://mavenir.com/about-us/news-and-events/press-releases/press-releases-details/2014/T-Mobile-Netherlands-Selects-Mavenir-for-IMS-Core/default.aspx

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Juniper Disappointed in Q3 Results

Juniper Networks' net revenues for the third quarter of 2014 decreased 5% year-over-year and decreased 8% sequentially to $1,126 million.

Juniper's operating margin for the third quarter of 2014 increased to 15.3% on a GAAP basis, including a $15 million benefit from restructuring and other charges, from 9.4% in the second quarter of 2014, and increased from 12.2% in the third quarter of 2013. Juniper posted GAAP net income of $103.6 million, or $0.23 per diluted share for the third quarter of 2014.

"We are disappointed in our third quarter revenue results, which reflect a lower-than-anticipated demand from service providers, particularly in the U.S.," said Shaygan Kheradpir, chief executive officer of Juniper Networks. "However, the underlying long-term demand trends in networking remain intact. While we navigate these dynamics, we are relentlessly focused on managing operating expenses while providing the innovation that matters most to our customers. We continue to have confidence in our business and see substantial opportunities to drive profitable growth and increase the value of our shareholders' investment over the long-term."

"Despite a weaker spending environment impacting third quarter revenue growth, we have been able to manage costs effectively to deliver good margins," said Robyn Denholm, chief financial and operations officer of Juniper Networks. "We enhanced efficiencies across the Company and exceeded our targeted cost reductions ahead of schedule. We have also continued our aggressive capital return plan to return immediate value to our shareholders while investing for the future growth of our business."

http://investor.juniper.net/investor-relations/press-releases/press-release-details/2014/Juniper-Networks-Reports-Preliminary-Third-Quarter-2014-Financial-Results/default.aspx

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Juniper's Board Approves $1.1B Increase to Capital Return Plan

Juniper Networks' Board of Directors approved an increase to the share repurchase authorization by $1.1 billion.

For the first nine months of 2014, $1.75 billion of share repurchases have been already executed. The company intends to repurchase an additional $1.5 billion in aggregate share repurchases before end of Q2 2015. The Company is on track to return a total of $4.1 billion to shareholders over a 3-year period (2014 - 2016). The new capital return plan is an increase of $1.1 billion above the prior commitment to return $3.0 billion to shareholders over the same period.

Juniper also declared a fourth quarter cash dividend of $0.10 per share, to be paid on December 23, 2014 to shareholders of record as of the close of business on December 2, 2014.

"Our expanded capital return commitment reflects our ongoing focus on delivering value to shareholders over the near- and long-term," said Shaygan Kheradpir, chief executive officer of Juniper Networks. "We are confident in Juniper's future and believe current market conditions are providing us with a compelling opportunity to aggressively reduce share count while continuing to invest in the future growth of our business."

http://www.juniper.net

In January 2014, Juniper Networks announced a corporate restructuring aimed at "enhancing its operational efficiency, returning capital to shareholders, refocusing on strategic opportunities and reinvigorating its culture."  The plan gained the support of Elliot Management, an outside investment firm that had been lobbying for changes at Juniper.

Juniper said it plans to refocus on "innovation that matters most to service providers and enterprises where demand for High-IQ Networks and best-in-class cloud environments are driving growth.  The plan included share repurchases, stock dividends and a renewed focus on routing, switching, security, control and network management.

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