Wednesday, August 30, 2017

AT&T's fixed 5G trial expands to more cities

In a show of confidence in 5G, AT&T announced the expansion of its fixed wireless 5G trials to business and residential customers in Waco, Texas; Kalamazoo, Michigan; and South Bend, Indiana by the end of the year. Trial participants in the new markets may include universities, hospitals, churches, restaurants, and other small businesses. Participants will be able to stream premium live TV via DIRECTV NOW and experience faster broadband services,...

AT&T flies drones in Texas to inspect cell towers

AT&T is deploying a fleet of 25 drones to areas in Southeast Texas to inspect cell towers to determine the hurricane's impact on its network. AT&T said the drones can inspect areas that are still unreachable by cars or trucks because of flooding. The company is also deploying two Satellite Cell on Wheels (Sat COLTs) in Beaumont, Texas and will stage 12 more in the area to support customers and first responders following the second landfall...

Windstream builds its enhanced ‘Cloud Connect’

Windstream introduced an enhanced version of its Cloud Connect solution, providing a dedicated, high-speed, highly secure cloud-optimized network connection to major Cloud Service Providers (CSPs), including Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, IBM Bluemix, Google Cloud, Oracle Fast Connect and Salesforce. The service is available immediately to companies in Windstream’s nationwide service area. Windstream Cloud Connect offers customers flexible...

FCC: More cell sites restored in Texas

As of August 30, 2017 at 11:00 a.m. EDT, there were 329 cell sites still down in areas of Texas and Louisiana impacted by tropical storm Harvey, according to the FCC.  This is an improvement from 24 hours earlier when 365 cell sites were down. In addition, there were at least 267,426 cable and wireline subscribers without service, down from at least 283,593 yesterday. There are 42(up from 21 yesterday) non-mobile switching centers out of...

Frontier counts damage in south Texas

As of midday Wednesday, Frontier Communications, which serves approximately 200,000 access lines in the South Texas area, said that about 100 central offices across the territory either lack commercial power or are operating on battery and generator backup. Frontier's operations teams are continuing to repair and assess damages to the company's network in severely affected areas and are working to identify and repair damages to poles, pedestals...

Kuwait-based Zain Group positions for digital transformation

Kuwait-based Zain Group, which now has operations in eight markets across the Middle East and Africa, has just raised $846 million in cash by selling a 9.8% equity stake to neighboring Omantel. The all-cash deal adds a measure of liquidity to Zain Group, which is aiming to transform itself into a digital service provider as it prepares for 5G and other advanced infrastructure. Zain Group, which was established in 1983 as Kuwait’s Mobile Telecommunications...

Kolos plans hyperscale data center north of Arctic Circle

A U.S.-Norwegian company called Kolos announced plans to build a massive data center in Ballangen, Norway, 140 miles (225 kilometers) north of the Arctic Circle. The facility – slated to open 2018 – is described as a brand-new class of hyper-scale data center. Kolos said its data center will stretch over some 600,000 square meters and is designed as a four-story structure integrated into the natural environment. It will be completely powered by...

ADVA updates guidance citing weaker orders

ADVA Optical Networking updated its Q3 2017 revenue and profitability guidance. Citing weaker than expected orders, ADVA said it now expects revenues in Q3 2017 (including acquisition of MRV Communications) are forecasted to be between EUR 110 million and EUR 125 million. Revenues in Q3 2017, excluding acquisition of MRV, are forecasted to be between EUR 104 million and EUR 114 million, down from previous guidance of between EUR 120 million and...

Keysight posts revenue of $832 milllion, up 16%

Keysight Technologies reported quarterly revenue of $832 million, up 16% compared with $715 million last year. GAAP operating margin was -0.4 percent, compared with 15 percent in the third quarter of 2016. GAAP net loss was $18 million, or a loss of $0.10 per share, compared with net income of $91 million, or $0.53 per share in the third quarter of 2016. “We delivered strong third quarter results. Order growth accelerated to 8 percent on a core...