FCC Raises $45 Billion in AWS-3 Spectrum Auction

The FCC's Advanced Wireless Services (AWS-3) auction drew to a close, raising a total of $44.899 billion. A total of 1,611 licenses total were, covering 65 MHz of spectrum in the 1695-1710 MHz, 1755-1780 MHz, and 2155-2180 MHz bands ("AWS-3" bands). The 1695-1710 MHz band is authorized for low-power mobile transmit (i.e., uplink) operations only. The 1755-1780 MHz frequencies in the paired 1755-1780/2155-2180 MHz band are authorized only for low-power...

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FCC Updates Broadband Definition to 25 Mbps

The FCC updated its definition for broadband to 25 Mbps down and 3 Mbps up. The previous benchmark, set in 2010, was 4 Mbps down and 1 Mbps up. The FCC also released the following stats on broadband adoption: 17 percent of all Americans (55 million people) lack access to 25 Mbps/3 Mbps service.  53 percent of rural Americans (22 million people) lack access to 25 Mbps/3 Mbps.  By contrast, only 8 percent of urban Americans lack access...

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VMware's vCloud Air to Deliver Google Cloud Services

VMware will deliver Google Cloud Platform services via its vCloud Air platform beginning later this year. Existing VMware vCloud Air customers will have access to the new services under their current service contract and existing network interconnect, and simply pay for the Google Cloud Platform services they consume. The initial set of Google Cloud Platform services that will be available on vCloud Air include: Google Cloud Storage - Google's...

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VeloCloud: Variable Performance for Broadband WAN Connections

Businesses relying on broadband lines (DSL, cable, LTE, Ethernet or fiber) continue to experience variable and insufficient performance one-quarter of the time, according to data compiled by VeloCloud Networks. Specifically, the VeloCloud Internet Quality Report for enterprise applications performance measured packet loss and jitter/latency during work hours over Internet WAN connections. Data was gathered by continuous monitoring of VeloCloud’s...

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Mushroom Adds VoIP Performance Mgt to Broadband Bonding

Mushroom Networks introduced a VoIP Armor performance management tool for its Truffle broadband line bonding appliance. Mushroom's VoIP Armor shields the VoIP traffic against any type of WAN link performance fluctuations and link failures. The technology relies on two or more Broadband Bonded Internet links to protect the VoIP packets against loss, delay and jitter as well as against starvation from other cross traffic. The company said this approach...

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Amazon Notes Some AWS Growth Metrics

In its quarterly financial report, Amazon disclosed that AWS now has over one million active customers (including trial accounts), with usage growth close to 90% year-over-year for the fourth quarter. The company notes that AWS delivered over 515 significant service and feature releases in 2014 (up more than 80% year-over-year), and that is third annual customer conference attracted more than 13,500 attendees from 63 countries. Amazon does not...

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DOCOMO Bundles "Hikari" Fiber Broadband Service

NTT DOCOMO will begin offering "docomo Hikari" optical-fiber broadband service alongside its mobile offerings. The optical-fiber service will offer individuals and companies unlimited Internet connection at speeds of up to 1 Gbps. Customers will not have to contract with a separate Internet service provider (ISP) since they can simply select from among many available ISPs. https://www.nttdocomo.co.jp/hikari/index.ht...

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Vodafone Tests 400G Transmission with Alcatel-Lucent

Vodafone Spain has successfully tested 400G optical transmission between Madrid and Zaragoza using existing optical infrastructure. The trial was conducted with Alcatel-Lucent’s 400G technology on Vodafone Spain’s existing Dispersion Compensation Module network over a span of 400km. The companies said the trial demonstrated the ability of an existing optical network to carry up 17.6 Tbps of traffic, doubling the current spectral efficiency in fiber. Alcatel-Lucent’s...

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FCC Updates E911 Indoor Location Rules

The FCC updated its E911 rules to include requirements focused on indoor location accuracy for helping emergency responders find 911 callers. The FCC said its new rules establish clear and measureable timelines for wireless providers to meet indoor location accuracy benchmarks, both for horizontal and vertical location information. The Commission noted that no single technological approach will solve the challenge of indoor location, and no solution...

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Radisys Intros Data Plane Load Balancer

Radisys introduced its FlowEngine TDE-1000 Intelligent Load Balancer for software defined networks (SDN) in both data centers and telecommunications environments. The TDE-1000 is a 3U platform that delivers wire speed IP packet classification and flow-based load balancing.  It is capable of distributing up to 1.2 Tbps of aggregate traffic across any third-party NFV infrastructure. It offloads Layer 2-4 network services, making VNF resource...

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Broadcom Posts Q4 Revenue of $2.14 Billion, up 3.8% YoY

Broadcom reported Q4 2014 revenue of $2.14 billion, a decrease of 5.2% compared with the $2.26 billion reported for the third quarter of 2014 and an increase of 3.8% compared with the $2.06 billion reported for the fourth quarter of 2013. Net income (GAAP) for the fourth quarter of 2014 was $390 million, or $0.64 per share (diluted), compared with GAAP net income of $98 million, or $0.16 per share (diluted), for the third quarter of 2014 and GAAP...

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Aviat Reports Revenue of $92.5 million

Aviat Networks reported quarterly revenue of $92.5 million, compared with $85.8 million in the year-ago quarter. Aviat reported net loss, including discontinued operations, of $(3.3) million, or $(0.05) per share, compared with a net loss of $(9.9) million, or $(0.16) per share, in the year-ago quarter. Loss from continuing operations for the quarter was $(3.2) million, or $(0.05) per share, compared with a loss from continuing operations of $(10.2)...

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