Blueprint: Virtual Session Border Controllers - Benefits and Pitfalls

by Ashish Jain, Director of Solutions Marketing, GENBAND The move to Network Functions Virtualization is certainly gaining steam. Increasingly, communications service providers are evolving their hardware-based infrastructure to new, next-generation communications networks. The rationale is simple – because of the many benefits offered by the virtualization of network functions including, but certainly not limited to, time-to-market for introducing...

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Orange and Ericsson Test Internet of Things

Ericsson and Orange announced a trial of optimized, low-cost, low-complexity devices and enhanced network capabilities for Cellular IoT over GSM and LTE. Some highlights: Improved indoor coverage: The world-first EC-GSM (Extended Coverage) trial will be conducted in France using the 900 MHz band, with the aim to enhance device reachability by up to 20dB or a seven-fold improvement in the range of low-rate applications. This further extends the...

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Cosmote Hits 500 Gbps with LTE FDD 3x Carrier Aggregation + 256QAM

Cosmote Greece achieved download speeds of 500Mbps in a live LTE network using equipment from Ericsson. Cosmote is implementing FDD 3xCarrier Aggregation & 256 QAM innovation to their commercial network, boosting performance and market differentiation. The demonstration, which took place at the Infocom World 2015 event in Athens on November 24, 2015, used Ericsson’s radio solutions and Ericsson Networks Software 16A . In addition, three component...

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DOCOMO's 5G Trials Hit Multiple Gigabits Rates

NTT DOCOMO announced results from several recent 5G trials, each of which surpassed the gigabit barrier.  Some highlights: A 5G trial it conducted with Nokia Networks at the Roppongi Hills high-rise complex in Tokyo on October 13 achieved data transmission in excess of 2Gbps. The trial used millimeter-wavelength signals with an extremely high frequency of 70GHz, a key development for the eventual commercial use of 5G wireless technology in...

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ADVA Acquires Engineering Team

ADVA Optical Networking has acquired an engineering division from technology incubator, mic AG. Financial terms were not disclosed. ADVA said this team of engineers is specifically focused on the development of optical monitoring technology and will help to advance its FSP 3000 Access Link Monitoring (ALM) product. "We have one of the biggest engineering teams in the industry. It's this combined intelligence, this collective insight, that sets...

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Verizon Sees Jump in Black Friday Data Traffic

Verizon reported a bounce in broadband and mobile data traffic for Black Friday: Broadband traffic attributed to e-commerce shopping activities on Black Friday (Nov. 27) spiked by 12 percentage points from Thanksgiving Day, and is relatively consistent with the same day in 2014.   Average daily mobile traffic on Black Friday increased by a few percentage points from Thanksgiving Day, which exhibited the same pattern in 2014. Year-over-year,...

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GSMA: India Surpasses 500 Million Unique Mobile Subscribers

India is on track to surpass half a billion mobile subscribers by the end of the year, according to a new GSMA study published today, signaling the start of a new era for the country’s mobile economy. The new report, ‘The Mobile Economy: India 2015’, finds that 13 per cent of the world’s mobile subscribers reside in India and that subscriber growth is forecast to outperform the regional and global averages over the coming years as the country cements...

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Poland's Polkomtel Readies Voice over Wi-Fi with Nokia

Polkomtel, the Polish operator of the Plus network, has partnered with Nokia Networks to launch Poland’s first public trial of its Wi-Fi Calling+ service. The service lets users make regular calls when connected by Wi-Fi in locations with poor mobile coverage. The common voice core for VoWiFi and voice over LTE (VoLTE) enables a smooth evolution of enhanced voice services going forward. During the trial period, the Wi-Fi Calling+ service is available...

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