EXFO to acquire Yenista for optical test equipment

EXFO agreed to acquire Yenista Optics, a privately held company based in Lannion, France, that supplies advanced optical test equipment for the R&D and manufacturing markets.  Financial terms were not disclosed and EXFO said the deal is subject to a number of conditions to be completed before closing.

Yenista Optics' product portfolio includes benchtop optical spectrum analyzers, tunable lasers, tunable filters and passive optical component test systems for network equipment manufacturers and optical component vendors. The company generated revenue of €5.2 million in 2016 and was profitable. The company owns more than 20 patents protecting its proprietary technologies on measurement techniques, optical filters and external cavity lasers.

EXFO said Yenista Optics is highly complementary to its own optical test portfolio, which largely consists of portable test equipment for the network service provider market.

"Yenista Optics has built an impressive product portfolio over the years for the high-end laboratory and manufacturing markets," said Germain Lamonde, Executive Chairman of EXFO's Board of Directors. "This  transaction, if completed, would allow EXFO to leverage Yenista's best-in-class technology across its global sales channels to expand market share."

http://www.exfo.com

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T-Mobile hits 1.175 Gbps in 4.9G LTE test

T-Mobile hit a peak downlink speed of 1.175 Gbps in lab tests conducted this month with Nokia and Qualcomm. Technology used in the tests included:

• Nokia 4.9G powered by AirScale Base Station
• A Snapdragon X20 LTE modem mobile test device, supporting Downlink Category 18 for theoretical peak download speeds up to 1.2 Gbps
• 12 independent streams of LTE data
• 4X4 MIMO, 256 QAM and three carrier aggregation across 60 MHz of downlink spectrum on T-Mobile’s network

The companies said that using 12 simultaneous independent LTE data streams between the device and network enables a theoretical peak download speed of 1.2 Gbps.

“Every meaningful network innovation in recent years has come first from T-Mobile. We already have America’s fastest and most advanced LTE network, and we’ve built it to advance faster for customers than anybody else out there,” said Neville Ray, CTO of T-Mobile. “These tests with Nokia and Qualcomm Technologies prove that T-Mobile customers have a lot more speed to look forward to from our LTE network as we evolve to 5G.”

http://www.t-mobile.com

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South Africa's FibreCo Selects ADVA's FSP 3000

FibreCo Telecommunications, one of South Africa's leading communication service providers, has selected ADVA Optical Networking's FSP 3000 metro and long-haul technology to offer tailor-made connectivity services to its business, government and carrier customers. The initial deployment involves a 100Gbit/s ROADM network carrying data over 780km between Johannesburg and the undersea cable landing station at Mtunzini. ADVA Optical Networking’s Elite partner Jasco Carrier Solutions will play a key role in the deployment and continuous support of the new network.

ADVA said its FSP 3000 enables FibreCo’s new infrastructure to carry both 10 and 100Gbit/s traffic and include long-haul links that require no regeneration. FibreCo’s future network expansion plans will see 100Gbit/s metro and long-haul links connecting other cities and regions across South Africa.

“This strategic partnership provides a firm foundation for the future as we help even more South African businesses unleash their full potential. With ADVA Optical Networking’s flexible platform, we can respond in the shortest possible time to each and every customer demand,” said Marius Mostert, CTO, FibreCo. “The ADVA FSP 3000, including its advanced ROADM technology, enables us to deliver the high-speed, scalable connectivity that today’s enterprises and service providers demand. Our new infrastructure delivers several key efficiencies from low latency to optimized bandwidth utilization. What’s more, the support and local expertise provided by ADVA Optical Networking and Jasco Carrier Solutions gives us a lot of confidence that we’ll achieve quick time to market and the highest network availability.”

“To be selected as FibreCo’s strategic partner is an honor for every member of our team. It highlights the benefits of our flexible, scalable solution and underlines the value of the local support we offer. With this new network, we’re expanding our leading market position in South Africa,” commented Günter Landers, sales director, Africa, ADVA Optical Networking.

http://www.advaoptical.com

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Swisscom launches Enterprise Cloud in Swiss jurisdiction

Swisscom announced the launch of two new cloud solutions:Enterprise Service Cloud from Switzerland and the Enterprise Cloud for SAP Solutions, which has been specially designed for efficient SAP operations.

Swisscom is also extending its portfolio with global offerings from Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure.

The Enterprise Service Cloud is an integrated cloud that covers everything from infrastructure via platform services to Managed Services and outsourcing. All data storage and functionality resides within Swiss jurisdiction. The cloud runs in tier IV-certified Swisscom data centres. From 2018 there will also be industry-specific services, for the banking or health sector for instance, with tighter compliance guidelines.

Enterprise Cloud for SAP Solutions is a SAP-certified, flexible and reliable service. As the largest SAP provider in Switzerland, Swisscom said it can offer the expertise of its 300 SAP consultants and its 80 full outsourcing customers to provide flexible infrastructure and dedicated SAP operations for Switzerland.

https://www.swisscom.ch/en/about/medien/press-releases/2017/09/20170907-die-swisscom-familie-waechst.html

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EXFO's optical spectrum analyzer tests up to 400G

EXFO released its new FTBx-5255 Optical Spectrum Analyzer (OSA) designed for the field testing needs of telecom service providers, internet content providers and network equipment manufacturers.

A key capability of the new OSA is that it supports in-service network testing of the optical signal-to-noise ratio (OSNR) of 100G/200G/400G (Pol-Mux) signals, which means that service providers and ICPs do not have to interrupt their operations to perform these measurements.

EXFO's new OSA also enables in-service network testing of O-band pluggables and L-band transceivers, as well as CWDM spectral analysis.

"Customers have repeatedly expressed a need for a non-intrusive way of measuring OSNR on high-speed networks, to ensure they're meeting customer expectations for quality of service," said Stéphane Chabot, EXFO's Vice President, Test and Measurement. "Our new portable optical spectrum analyzer equips service providers, internet content providers, and NEMs for testing live networks, saving them time and significantly reducing operating expenses while making troubleshooting faster and better. No one else can offer them the ability to address all OSA testing applications with a single module."

The FTBx-5255 is available in EXFO's FTB-2, FTB-2 Pro and FTB-4 Pro portable test platforms as well as in the LTB-8 platform for rackmount and lab applications.

http://investors.exfo.com/releasedetail.cfm?&CompanyID=ABEA-5493A9&ReleaseID=1039332

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