#MWC16: NGENA Targets Multicarrier NFV Services Enabled by Cisco

A new Next Generation Enterprise Network Alliance (“ngena”) plans to launch international network services for business customers in the first half of 2017. Founding members include CenturyLink, Deutsche Telekom, Reliance and SK Telecom. The alliance envisions more than 20 additional service provider partners at full global deployment. Ngena will provide a global service catalogue to its alliance partners, enabling them to deliver a unique network...

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#MWC16: LTE Hits One Billion Connections

The number of 4G connections has passed the one billion milestone and is on track to account for a third of all mobile connections by 2020, according to a new study by the GSMA. The 2016 global edition of the GSMA’s ‘Mobile Economy’ series of reports points to an accelerating technology shift to 3G/4G mobile broadband networks across both developed and developing markets, which is fuelling digital innovation, smartphone adoption and mobile data...

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#MWC16: Facebook's Telecom Infra Project Brings OCP Model to Infrastructure

Facebook is launching a "Telecom Infra Project", "an engineering-focused initiative that is bringing operators, infrastructure providers, system integrators, and other technology companies together to collaborate on the development of new technologies and reimagine traditional approaches to building and deploying telecom network infrastructure." The idea is to take the principles of the Open Compute Project (OCP) model and apply them to software...

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#MWC16: Four Top Operators Push for 5G Open Trial Specs

A new 5G Open Trial Specification Alliance has been formed by KT, NTT DOCOMO, SK Telecom and Verizon to develop an aligned 5G trial specification that would serve as a common, extendable platform for different 5G trial activity around the world. The work will be focused on technical fundamentals and promoting a more inclusive, open, and collaborative approach to the development of 5G trial networks. Specifically, The 5G Open Trial Specification...

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#MWC16: Ericsson Announces a Cloud Connect Alliance with AWS

Ericsson announced  a global business, technology and services alliance with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to accelerate cloud transformation for telecoms service providers. Specifically, Ericsson is creating a global team of experts focused on the AWS Cloud and opening cloud innovation centers with customers, and AWS is supporting Ericsson in this effort. Telstra is the first Ericsson customer to agree to host a joint cloud innovation center...

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#MWC16: Cisco Ultra Reimagines Mobile Core

At Mobile World Congress, Cisco unveiled Ultra, its new virtualized, feature-rich, mobile services platform. Deutsche Telekom is creating a multi-country mobile cloud. SK Telecom of South Korea is automating new service creation using Cisco Ultra. Some highlights: SDN enables user plane functionality to be distributed close to the radio access network, allowing data to shortcut to the Internet. This reduces backhaul traffic Service creation and...

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#MWC16: Carriers Adopt Google's Android Rich Communications Services Profile

Major global operators agreed to accelerate the availability of Rich Communications Services (RCS) as an open, consistent, and globally interoperable messaging service across Android devices. Operators have agreed to transition toward a common, universal profile based on the GSMA’s RCS specifications and an Android RCS client provided by Google in collaboration with operators and OEMs. Operators backing this initiative include América Móvil, Bharti...

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#MWC16: Intel Shows 5G Trial Platform

Intel unveiled a 5G Mobile Trial Platform for use in both wireless access points (infrastructure) and devices.  The portable system helps Intel and its partners better assess 5G technology and propagation challenges in actual usage scenarios. Key components: A baseband signal processor powered by Altera Arria 10 FPGAs, which enables quick updating of the 5G trial platform’s processing layers and the ability to flexibly track the development...

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#MWC16: Open Source MANO Initiative Gets Underway

A new industry initiative is underway for the development of Open Source software for Management and Orchestration (MANO) of Network Functions Virtualization (NFV). The group is sponsored by ETSI and its founders include BT, Canonical, Intel, Mirantis, RIFT.io Inc, Telefonica, Telekom Austria Group and Telenor. Two of the key components of the ETSI NFV architectural framework are the NFV Orchestrator and VNF (Virtualized Network Function) Manager,...

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#MWC16: DOCOMO Runs EPC in its Own NFV

NTT DOCOMO has developed its own network function virtualization (NFV) technology that can run Evolved Packet Core (EPC) software from multiple vendors to enhance connectivity in high-volume areas. DOCOMO plans to deploy the technology on its network starting this March. DOCOMO said it expects to virtualize many other key components of its mobile network, aiming at eventually establishing a fully virtualized network. “Multi-vendor NFV technology,...

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OpenDaylight Berylium Hits the Streets

The OpenDaylight Project released Beryllium (Be) - the fourth release of its open source platform for programmable, software-defined networking platform. New Features in OpenDaylight Beryllium Performance and Scalability: Stronger analysis and testing of clustering (where multiple instances of ODL act as one logical controller) appear in ODL Be. Applications that want to be cluster-aware can choose how to put data across the cluster. For the first...

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#MWC16: ZTE and China Mobile Show Prototype 5G Radio

ZTE and China Mobile are showcasing a 5G high-frequency prototype base station. The ZTE-developed prototype operates on a 15 GHz carrier with a bandwidth of 500 MB and boasts a hardware structure of a large-capacity baseband unit (BBU) and an intelligent remote radio unit (RRU). Its high-frequency, ultra-wideband and compact design optimizes performance and provides a multi-user multiple input multiple output (MU-MIMO) peak bitrate as high as 10...

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IBM and VMware Enter Hybrid Cloud Partnership

IBM and VMware announced a strategic partnership designed to help enterprises take better advantage of the cloud. Some key points: IBM and VMware have jointly designed an architecture and cloud offering that will enable customers to automatically provision pre-configured VMware SDDC environments, consisting of VMware vSphere, NSX and Virtual SAN on the IBM Cloud. This will enable customer to deploy workloads in this hybrid cloud environment without...

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Verizon to Acquire XO's Fiber Business for $1.8 Billion

Verizon Communications has agreed to acquire XO Communications’ fiber-optic network business for approximately $1.8 billion. Verizon cited several financial benefits from the transaction, including a step-up in the basis of the assets as well as operating and capital expense savings. The net present value of the operational synergies is expected to be in excess of $1.5 billion. Separately, Verizon will simultaneously lease available XO wireless...

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