5G New Radio (NR) Specs Approved

The 3GPP initiative officially approved the 5G New Radio (NR) specifications. Balazs Berenyi, 3GPP RAN Chair, described the approval as "an impressive achievement in a remarkably short time, with credit due particularly to the Working Groups." At Mobile World Congress 2017 in February, major mobile network operators and vendors issued a call to accelerate the 5G New Radio (NR) standardization schedule to enable large-scale trials and deployments...

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France's Iliad to acquire Ireland's Eir for €3.5 billion

Iliad, the fully-integrated operator in France with nearly 20 million subscribers, has agreed to acquire eir, the Irish telecommunications and broadband carrier, for approximately €3.5 billion. eir, which was formerly the state-owned telecom monopoly in Ireland until 1999 (Telecom Eireann), is currently owned by an investor group including Anchorage Capital Group, L.L.C, Davidson Kempner Capital Management LP, GIC, and management. The offer from...

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AT&T to boost CAPEX by $1 billion, issue $1,000 bonus to 200K employees

In recognition of the new tax reform legislation, AT&T announced plans to boost its 2018 CAPEX by $1 billion and to pay a special $1,000 bonus to more than 200,000 of its U.S. employees — all union-represented, non-management and front-line managers. “Congress, working closely with the President, took a monumental step to bring taxes paid by U.S. businesses in line with the rest of the industrialized world,” said Randall Stephenson, AT&T...

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Top 5 Container Predictions for 2018

by David Messina, CMO, Docker Prediction #1: The next big security breach will be foiled by containers As we witnessed with the Equifax breach in early September, data breaches can place personal data at risk and in doing so, erode consumer confidence. But what if you could prevent a major breach by simply placing the software in a container? The Equifax breach occurred when a piece of web software was vulnerable and exposed to hackers. Containers...

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Comcast to Boost CAPEX, issue $1000 Holiday Bonuses

Following the passage of the tax reform legislation, Comcast announced plans to increase its capital expenditures and to issue $1,000 bonuses to more than one hundred thousand eligible frontline and non-executive employees. Comcast said it now plans to spend "well in excess of $50 billion over the next five years investing in infrastructure to radically improve and extend our broadband plant and capacity, and our television, film, and theme park...

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Vodafone initiates 5G trial with Ericsson

Vodafone UK is conducting a trial of pre-standard 5G using 3.5 GHz spectrum in central London. The testing is carried out in partnership with Ericsson and King’s College London. The trial includes both indoor and outdoor configurations using MIMO, beamforming, beam tracking, and other advanced technologies. Vodafone UK Head of Networks Kye Prigg said: “We’re delighted to be the first provider to test standalone 5G in the field, however, building...

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Fyusion raises $22M for computer vision

Fyusion, a start-up based in San Francisco, announced $22 million in Series B funding for its work in 3D computer vision and machine learning. Fyusion's mission is "to pioneer real-time visual understanding of the physical world using any camera though with a focus on Android & iOS devices." The technology creates immersive, interactive 3D images called ‘fyuses’ by moving any camera around a person, object or scene. Fyusion says its 3D AI technology...

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Anodot raises $23M for AI-driven analytics

Anodot, a start-up based in Ra'anana, Israel with offices in Sunnyvale, California announced $23 million in Series B funding for its AI-powered analytics. Anodot's AI-powered analytics tracks and correlates massive volumes of business and technical data in real time to identify business incidents, such as e-commerce glitches. The company recently achieved Amazon Web Services' Machine Learning competency, a status held by only 17 companies globally. Anodot...

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SendBird raises $16M for chat and messaging APIs

SendBird, a start-up based in Redwood City, California with R&D in Seoul, Korea, raised $16 million in Series A funding for its API and SDK for in-app chat and messaging. SendBird said its API is now powering chat for over 6,500 applications in 153 countries globally. It can support over a million concurrent users for each application. The funding round was led by Shasta Ventures and August Capital with participation from existing investors...

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AWS activates new region in Paris, its 18th globally

Amazon Web Services activated AWS EU (Paris) Region, its 18th infrastructure zone globally for a total of 49 availability zones, and its fourth region in Europe, joining existing regions in Germany, Ireland, and the UK. The new AWS EU (Paris) Region offers three Availability Zones. AWS Regions are comprised of Availability Zones, which refer to technology infrastructure in separate and distinct geographic locations with enough distance to significantly...

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Broadcom delivers its 12.8 Tbps Tomahawk 3 switching silicon

Broadcom announced commercial shipments of its StrataXGS Tomahawk 3 Ethernet switch silicon boasting 12.8 Terabits/sec in a single device -- double that of any other switching chip currently in the market. Tomahawk 3 paves the way for high-density, standards-based 400GbE, 200GbE, and 100GbE switching and routing for hyperscale cloud networks. The latest gen silicon is expected to be adopted by leading network equipment OEMs as well as by hyperscale...

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Sabey Data Centers pulls in $675m in financing

Seattle-based Sabey Data Centers, which owns and operates data center campuses in Seattle, Ashburn (VA), Quincy (WA) and Wenatchee (WA), closed a $675 million financing package led by TD Securities, including a $425 million 5-year term loan and a $250 million 5-year revolver.  The company said proceeds of the term loan will be used to refinance existing property-level debt into a corporate facility, while the revolver will be used to fund...

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Bharti Airtel to acquire Tigo Rwanda

Bharti Airtel Limited agreed to acquire Millicom's Rwanda mobile network, which operates under the Tigo Rwanda brand. The companies said the price is approximately 6x 2017 adjusted EBITDA, payable over two years, consisting of a mix of cash, vendor loan note and earn out. Media sources put the price at about US$6 billion. Tigo Rwanda has about 3.25 million customers. By integrating the assets with its own Airtel Rwanda, Bharti will hold approximately...

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CyrusOne builds a massive data center campus near Atlanta

CyrusOne unveiled plans to build a massive data center campus in Atlanta to serve its expanding customer base of hyperscale cloud providers and Fortune 1000 enterprise customers. The new 44-acre campus is located in the Riverside West Industrial Park in the Atlanta suburb of Douglasville, Georgia. Upon full buildout, the site will include three data centers, with 440,000 square feet of data center space and 50 megawatts of critical power. CyrusOne...

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Red Hat sales pop 22% yoy in latest quarter

Red Hat posted sales of $748 million for its fiscal quarter ended November 30, 2017, up 22% year-over-year, or 20% measured in constant currency. Subscription revenue for the quarter was $657 million, up 21% year-over-year, and now constituting 88% of total revenue. Subscription revenue from Infrastructure-related offerings for the quarter was $495 million, an increase of 15% year-over-year Subscription revenue from Application Development-related...

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Elliptic Labs offers ultrasound sensor for Qualcomm's Neural Engine

Elliptic Labs, a start-up with headquarters in Oslo and offices in San Francisco, and Shanghai have demonstrated its touch-free ultrasound gesture technology running on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 Mobile Platform using the Snapdragon Neural Processing Engine (NPE). Elliptic Labs’ ultrasound virtual sensors can be implemented in electronic devices, such as laptops, tablets and smartphones, to detect natural hand movements in the air above, in front...

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Zain extends IP/MPLS with Cisco segment routing

Zain Group is leveraging Cisco's advanced segment routing platforms and WAN automation to bring distributed intelligence and centralized control to its IP/MPLS network. The deployment will enable simplification, scalability and open innovation for the network. Cisco said its technology will also help Zain Group optimize network operations and offer a richer suite of differentiated services. “The capabilities of Cisco’s segment routing, automation...

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Intel ships Stratix 10 MX FPGA with High Bandwidth Memory DRAM

Intel has begun commercial shipments of the industry's first field programmable gate array (FPGA) with integrated High Bandwidth Memory DRAM (HBM2). Several variants are now available including the Intel Stratix 10 GX FPGAs (with 28G transceivers) and the Intel Stratix 10 SX FPGAs (with embedded quad-core ARM processor). The Intel Stratix 10 MX FPGAs offer up to 10 times the memory bandwidth when compared with standalone DDR memory solutions, according...

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IDT intros IEEE 1588 timing for Cavium

Integrated Device Technology will offer integrated IEEE 1588 software and timing components for a variety of Cavium System on Chip (SoC) solutions. IDT said the range of applications requiring precision synchronization over packet-switched networks using the IEEE 1588 protocol has expanded from mobile networks and industrial automation applications to increasing include data centers, broadcast video, high-speed trading and high-performance computing. "IDT's...

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Avaya emerges from Chapter 11 after eliminating $3 billion in debt

Avaya Holdings Corp. emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings. The company is seeking to reestablish a listing on the NYSE with approximately 110 million shares outstanding. Avaya said it remains focused on "mission-critical, real-time communication applications of the world’s most important operations." Its portfolio includes software and services for contact center and unified communications— offered on premises, in the cloud, or a hybrid. “This...

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ATP grows into largest tower company in the Andes

Andean Tower Partners (ATP) has acquired Torres Unidas from Berkshire Partners for an undisclosed sum. The acquisition adds 1,644 sites to ATP's portfolio of digital communication infrastructure assets to ATP, which now has over 2,150 sites, and manages more than 32,000 master leased sites and 13 small cell networks deployments in Colombia, Peru, and Chile. The former CEO of Torres Unidas, Daniel Seiner, will become the CEO of the combined company...

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Australia's NBN Co extends Ericsson fixed wireless contract to 2020

NBN Co has announced it will continue its fixed wireless and Sky Muster™ managed services partnership with Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) through to 2020. Australia's NBN Co has extended a managed services contract with Ericsson through to 2020. Ericsson will continue to be responsible for nbn fixed wireless network operations, ground systems operations for Sky Muster – the operator's satellite service – as well as customer connections and assurance for...

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Cisco and Digicel target digitization for the Caribbean

Digicel has signed a framework agreement with Cisco for accelerating the digital agenda and existing digitization policies for 26 countries in the Caribbean and Central America.  The companies agreed to collaborate to develop a digitization vision for each country for both the immediate and the long term, defining areas for implementation and specific projects, such as Healthcare/Telemedicine, Smart Cities, and Connected Schools, as well as...

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Frontier says rural broadband deployment ahead of schedule

Frontier Communications reports that it is ahead of schedule in deploying rural broadband, exceeding 2017 milestone requirements of the Connect America Fund program (CAF) in eight additional states. The carrier is now ahead of schedule in Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Tennessee, Texas, and Wisconsin. This is in addition to Arizona, Connecticut, Georgia, Montana, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Washington and West Virginia...

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Meituan data centers deploy Mellanox Ethernet switches, adapters

Meituan.com will deploy Mellanox Spectrum Ethernet switches, ConnectX adapters and LinkX cables to accelerate its multi-thousand servers for their artificial intelligence, big data analytics and cloud data centers. The installation will use Mellanox 25 Gigabit and 100 Gigabit smart interconnect solutions and RDMA technology. Financial terms were not disclosed. Meituan.com is the world’s leading online and on-demand delivery platform, supporting...

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Equinix acquires Australian data centers from Metronode for US$792M

Equinix agreed to acquire Metronode, an Australian data center operator, for A$1.035 billion (US$792 million) in cash.  Metronode has been fully owned by the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan since December 2016. Metronode operates two data centers in Melbourne, three in greater Sydney (including one in Illawarra), two in Perth, and one in each of Canberra, Adelaide and Brisbane. The acquired Metronode sites add approximately 20,000 square meters...

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Oracle acquires Aconex for $1.2B - cloud collaboration tools

Oracle agreed to acquire Aconex Limited, which offers a cloud-based, team collaboration scheduler for construction projects, for A$7.80 per share in cash. The deal is valued at approximately US$1.2 billion, net of Aconex cash. The Aconex project collaboration solution, which is used by some 70,000 organizations worldwide for managing construction projects, connects owners, builders, and other teams. It provides visibility and management of data,...

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Quintillion lights subsea cable for arctic Alaska

Quintillion has activated commercial service on its new subsea fiber optic cable system serving five northern Alaska communities: Utqiaġvik, Wainwright, Point Hope, Nome, and Kotzebue. Installation of the Alaska Arctic portion of the international Quintillion Subsea Cable System was completed in early October. Quintillion’s subsea and terrestrial fiber optic network spans 1,400 miles, including a subsea trunk line from Prudhoe Bay to Nome with...

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AT&T and CWA reach labor deal covering 20K workers

AT&T and the Communications Workers of America (CWA) reached a tentative agreement covering 20,000 employees in 36 states and the District of Columbia -- AT&T's Mobility Orange unit, which encompasses CWA Districts 1, 2-13, 4, 7 and 9. Highlights of the tentative agreement: A contract length of four years Retroactive wage increases back to Feb. 12, 2017, and a $1,000 lump sum, if the agreement is ratified by Jan. 12, 2018. General wage...

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AT&T boosts dividend by 2%

AT&T’s quarterly dividend will increase from $0.49 to $0.50 per share. The annual dividend will increase from $1.96 to $2.00 per share. “Our strong cash flows and outlook for the business allow us to raise our dividend for the 34th consecutive year. We’re committed to returning value to our shareholders, and we’re pleased to deliver yet again,” said Randall Stephenson, chairman and CEO, AT&T Inc. The dividend is payable on Feb. 1, 2018,...

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EXFO to acquire Astellia for mobile subscriber awareness

EXFO has launched an all-cash voluntary tender offer to acquire all of the outstanding shares of Astellia, a provider of network and subscriber intelligence solutions for mobile operators. EXFO already holds 33.1% of Astellia's equity. The offer is proposed at a price of EUR 10 per Astellia share, valuing the entirety of Astellia's equity (on a fully diluted basis) at approximately €25.9 million. Astellia's real-time monitoring and troubleshooting...

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NTT develops a better optical connector cleaner

NTT Advanced Technology (NTT-AT) has developed a new cleaner for waterproof optical connectors (ODC connectors), which are used in outdoor applications such as Fiber to the Antenna (FTTA) deployments. The problem to be addressed is the contamination that builds over time on the end face of an optical connector, degrading reliability and performance. Optical cleaning tools can mitigate this issue. NTT-AT's new "NEOCLEAN series" uses specialized...

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NTT and Chunghwa Telecom advance their white box trial

NTT and Taiwan-based  Chunghwa Telecom have successfully carried out a joint experiment to verify the service continuity and reliability of a virtual network control system. This experiment was enabled by the combination of NTT’s Multi-Service Fabric (MSF) and Chunghwa Telecom’s orchestrator (NAPA). The experiment was performed on a network of whitebox switches. Specifically, virtual network configuration and control technologies using white-box...

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Harris supplies navigation payloads for GPS III

Harris Corporation delivered two advanced navigation payloads in 2017 to Lockheed Martin for use on GPS III satellites. The company is on track to deliver four more in 2018, and a total of ten units under its contract with Lockheed Martin. Harris’ navigation payload consists of a Mission Data Unit (MDU), featuring a unique 70-percent digital design that links atomic clocks, radiation-hardened computers and powerful transmitters – enabling signals...

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NTT Comm partners with Vantis in Hong Kong

Vantis Consulting Group (Vantis) has become the first partner in Hong Kong to join NTT Communications' Global Management One (GMOne) Managed Services Partner Program. Vantis will resell NTT Com GMOne managed services, cloud and hosting solutions, and further integrates with their service offerings to meet enterprises’ growing hybrid ICT needs. GMOne managed services leverage NTT Com’s global resources for managing entire hybrid ICT ecosystems,...

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FCC votes 3-2 to end Net Neutrality rules

The FCC voted 3-2 along partisan lines to adopt the "Restoring Internet Freedom Order" proposed by FCC Chairman Ajit Pai to rollback Obama-era Net Neutrality rules. Voting in favor of the order were Republicans Ajit Pai, who argued that measure will usher in a new era of investment for Internet infrastructure. Also voting in favor were Republicans Michael O'Rielly and Brendan Carr. Voting against the measure were Democrats Mignon Clyburn and Jessica...

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