12/15/14 ~ Converge! Network Digest

Monday, December 15, 2014

Sonera Delivers 230 Mbps on Live LTE-A Network in Helsinki

Monday, December 15, 2014 Finland, LTE-Advanced, Sonera

Sonera is delivering peak downlink rates of up to 230 Mbps in certain areas of Helsinki over its commercial LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) network, with a theoretical top speeds of 300 Mbps.

The network aggregates a total bandwidth of up to 40 MHz using the 1800 MHz and 2600 MHz frequency bands.

Sonera offers Samsung Galaxy Alpha and Samsung Galaxy Note 4 smartphones to use LTE-A and new devices are being added to the portfolio at the beginning of 2015.

Nokia Networks delivered the network upgrade. The agreement includes systems integration services and Nokia’s Flexi Multiradio 10 Base Station.

http://networks.nokia.com/
http://www.sonera.com

Sonera first launched LTE service in Helsinki in November 2010.

BT Confirms Negotiations to Acquire EE

Monday, December 15, 2014 BT, Deutsche Telekom, EE, Orange, UK

BT confirmed exclusive negotiations to acquire EE from Deutsche Telekom and Orange. EE would provide BT with an advanced 4G network across the UK, accelerating its mobile strategy.

The key headline terms, which are non-binding:

A purchase price of £12.5bn (US$19.5 billion) for EE on a debt/cash free basis through a combination of cash and new BT ordinary shares issued to both Deutsche Telekom and Orange.
Following the transaction, Deutsche Telekom would hold a 12% stake in BT and would be entitled to appoint one member of the BT Board of Directors.
Orange would hold a 4% stake in BT.
BT expects significant synergies mainly through network and IT rationalisation, back-office consolidation and savings on procurement, marketing and sales costs.

http://www.btplc.com/News/Articles/ShowArticle.cfm?ArticleID=C166A667-9C87-4128-8A2C-03E2DD8E017C

Orange Tests FDD LTE-A in 3.4 - 3.6 GHz with Ericsson

Monday, December 15, 2014 Ericsson, FDD, France, LTE-Advanced, Orange

Orange and Ericsson have successfully used the 3.4-3.6 GHz (3.5 GHz) frequencies for testing data speeds, coverage and FDD carrier aggregation.

Orange has conducted a live LTE-Advanced FDD trial using the 3.4-3.6 GHz (3.5 GHz) frequencies. The tests, which were conducted with Ericsson, were carried out in October-November 2014 on Orange's network in Bordeaux using Ericsson's pre-commercial equipment.

The companies said the testing established that 3.5 GHz is suitable for the deployment of macro-cells in FDD mode in cities.

The first phase of the trial was performed at the Orange Labs in Paris. In this trial, speeds of 300 Mbps were achieved by using the 3.5 GHz band in aggregation with the 2.6 GHz band, thereby confirming the potential of 3.5 GHz FDD technology to increase mobile broadband capacity. The second phase was carried out on Orange's live mobile network and was based on Ericsson's pre-commercial FDD 3.5 GHz radio base station equipment.

For the trial, new antennas supporting the 3.5 GHz band were installed at the Le Ponant and Meriadeck sites in the city center of Bordeaux. A range of streaming-based services were tested allowing the team to continuously monitor network performance between the base station and the mobile prototype throughout the live trial. The data throughputs acquired during the tests were measured, both before and after carrier aggregation of the two bands. A peak performance of 150 Mbps at a distance of up to 700 meters was achieved in the 3.5 GHz band when used alone, and speeds of 300 Mbps was attained when used in aggregation with the 2.6 GHz band.

"This live FDD trial demonstrated that the 3.5 GHz band can be successfully used in urban and suburban environments in stand-alone mode or in aggregation with another band to provide advanced mobile broadband services using a FDD access scheme for high peak data rate applications to enhance user experience," said Alain Maloberti, Senior Vice President, Orange Labs Networks.

http://www.orange.com
http://www.ericsson.com

T-Mobile's Wideband LTE Hits NYC

Monday, December 15, 2014 NY/NJ, T-Mobile

T-Mobile's Wideband LTE service is now live throughout the greater New York City metro area, boasting speeds up to 50 percent faster than before. The company saind customers in the metro area are seeing download speeds in excess of 100 Mbps.

In addition to Manhattan, Wideband LTE now covers T-Mobile customers in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, Long Island and Northern NJ. All of Westchester County, including White Plains and Scarsdale as well as Central New Jersey will be added soon.

T-Mobile noted that its customers in and around New York City have been using an average of 2.6 GB of data per month with average download speeds of 22.2 Mbps.

http://www.t-mobile.com

T-Mobile has defined Wideband LTE as at least 15+15MHz. The carrier is also starting to roll out its new low-band 700 MHz A-Block spectrum.

Nokia Networks and STC Demo TDD-FDD Aggregation

Monday, December 15, 2014 Carrier Aggregation, LTE-Advanced, Nokia, Saudi Arabia, TD-LTE

Nokia Networks and Saudi Telecom Company (STC) demonstrated TDD-FDD Carrier Aggregation using a commercial chipset.

The demonstration was carried out using a new band combination of FDD 1800 MHz and TDD 2300 MHz.

Nokia Networks said high frequency bands have limited uplink coverage, but operators can significantly extend TDD coverage with TDD-FDD carrier aggregation with no additional changes to the network. Load balancing between TDD- and FDD-LTE networks ensures the best coverage and speed for all subscribers in both networks.

http://networks.nokia.com/

Riverbed Enters $3.6 Billion Privatization Deal with Thoma Bravo

Monday, December 15, 2014 Privatization, Riverbed, Thoma Bravo

Riverbed Technology (RVBD) announced a privatization deal with Thoma Bravo, LLC and Teachers’ Private Capital, the private investor department of Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan. Riverbed stockholders will receive $21.00 per share in cash, or a total of approximately $3.6 billion. Riverbed CEO Jerry Kennelly will remain with the company as CEO.

“We are extremely pleased with this transaction, which we believe will be a winning proposition for all of our stakeholders,” said Jerry M. Kennelly, chairman and CEO of Riverbed. “Having undertaken a thorough strategic review, during which we assessed a wide variety of options to maximize value, the Board unanimously concluded that partnering with Thoma Bravo was the best choice for Riverbed, as this transaction will provide our stockholders with significant and immediate cash value.

The private equity deal is the largest for the firm of Thoma Bravo to date.

http://ir.riverbed.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=198235&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1999462

Previous networking investments by Thoma Bravo have included: Blue Coat Systems, Empirix, InfoVista, Keynote Systems, Sailpoint Technologies, and others.

Orange Builds Cloud for European Space Agency

Monday, December 15, 2014 #cloud, France, Orange

Orange Business Services has been selected to deploy and manage a private cloud for the European Space Agency.

ESA operates from eight sites across Europe with 2,200 staff working in a wide range of roles including scientific, engineering, operations, industrial and administrative.

“Esacloud will allow our scientists to do rocket science rather than IT, and our business to jump ahead in time more than five years,” said Filippo Angelucci, ESA head of IT Department and CIO. “We put a high value in close partnership with suppliers in IT and since being selected in 2000, Orange Business Services has helped ESA innovate and be a pioneer in many areas, such as the first European converged MPLS IP VPN. Esacloud marks a new milestone in our joint path.”

http://www.orange-business.com